Women's College Soccer
Rider University 1, Manhattan College 0
RIVERSIDE, NY- The Broncs kept their playoff hopes alive with a pair of wins this weekend. "We knew at the start of the year that six wins would get us in the playoffs," said Rider head coach Drayson Hounsome, "and we knew at 5-4 we would have an outside chance. We need a couple of other results to go our way as long as we continue to play well."
Sophomore Abi Cottam (Leominster, England/Ludlow) scored her team-high eighth goal of the season to lead Rider (8-7-2, 4-4 MAAC) to a Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference victory at Manhattan (4-12-1, 2-5-0 MAAC) Sunday morning.
"It was probably our best performance of the season," Hounsome said. "It was a complete performance. We really dominated the possession."
Cottam took a crossing pass from freshman Bridgette Bartkowski (Marlton, NJ/Cherokee) and scored to give Rider a 1-0 lead in the 25th minute of play. The assist was Bartkowski's team-high fifth. "Gette received the ball and served a perfect pass to Abi," Hounsome said of Bartkowski. "She crossed it over the defender's head and Abi took a touch with the outside of her right foot onto her left foot all in one motion and put the ball in the corner (of the net). It was a quality finish."
"A beautiful ball from 'Gette," Cottam said. "It went right over the defender onto to my right foot and I took a shot with my left and it went in."
Last year Cottam tied a Rider record with three assists in a 4-1 win over Manhattan. "I had some assists last year and I finally got a goal against them," Cottam said.
Rider senior goalkeeper Alex Post (Chalfont, Pa./Central Bucks West) made four saves for her fifth shutout of the season and the 11th of her career.
"Alex really controlled her penalty area and made some big-time saves when she needed to," Hounsome said.
Rider out-shot Manhattan 22-11, including 15-6 in the second half, and 9-4 in shots on goal. Cottam had eight of Rider's shots, including three on goal. "We had so many chances we really should have finished it off earlier and not left it at 1-0," Hounsome said.
The Broncs and Jaspers have now met 15 times since the series began in 1997 with Rider winning five and there have been three ties.
Rider returns home for the regular season finale Saturday to host Loyola. Prior to the game the graduating seniors will be honored. "It will be a nice way to finish off the regular season," Hounsome said, "and hopefully it will not be our last game of the season."
"We're ready for that game," Cottam said. "It is going to be a great game."
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