Men's College Soccer
Saint Francis College (NY) 3, Rider University 0
LAWRENCEVILLE-The Broncs lost to St. Francis (NY) Saturday. "I think we are getting better in getting our personnel organized on the field," said Rider head coach Russ Fager. "We need to play a bit more our style."
For SFC (2-3-1), John Sallhag scored twice, including a penalty kick midway through the first half that made the score 2-0. Gabriel Bagot scored the only goal the Terriers need 12:34 into the game.
The Terriers recorded their first win of the season on Thursday, defeating NJIT 4-1 as Sallhag had three goals.
SFC out-shot Rider 20-14, including 9-2 on shots on goal. "I thought we had two quality chances today," Fager said.
Rider junior goalkeeper Christopher Pimentel (Brick, N.J./Brick Memorial) played the final 35 scoreless minutes and made four saves.
I thought Sal (junior Sal Lubrano of Flemington, N.J./Hunterdon Central) had a good game today," Fager said. "I thought (senior Andrew Cotes of Selden, N.Y./Newfield) worked hard. Those two had the best game of anybody on the field today. I thought Friga (sophomore Dan Friga of Clifton, N.J./Passaic County Tech) did a good job today as well. He got himself on the ball more often."
Rider had seven corner kicks to St. Francis' four. "They did not turn into opportunities," Fager said, "and that's the one thing that is surprising to me. We work a lot on corners and set pieces. We just can't seem to capitalize on what happens on them. What we've been doing in practice and in games is two different things."
Rider and SFC are former Northeast Conference rivals. They have now met 11 times in the series that began in 1987, with Rider leading 6-5. The two teams have not met since Rider won 3-1 in 2002.
Rider plays at Temple Wednesday. "We know it is going to be a tough game at Temple," Fager said. "They are going to be strong and physical. We have to find some way right now in the next two weeks to figure out who we are and where we are going to go from here."
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