Women's College Soccer
Holy Cross 2, Rider 1 (OT)
WORCESTER, Mass.-The Broncs lost in overtime at the College of the Holy Cross Sunday. "It was a very close game," said Rider head coach Drayson Hounsome. "We had to adjust to playing on grass again. The second half we played really well. We played well enough to win."
Rider (4-3-2) tied the score at 1-1 in the 67th minute of play on a goal by senior center midfielder Kimberly Reichel (Chester, N.J.) with an assist from freshman Jody Sokol (Bensalem, PA/Bensalem). "She made a great offensive run," Hounsome said. "She got into the box and Jody fed her the ball and she one-timed it into the back of the net. It was really exciting."
"Jody had the ball, dribbling up past the defenders," Reichel remembered, "I called for the ball, she made a great pass to me and it went in."
Sokol now has three goals and an assist for seven points, third most on the team.
Reichel has two assists this year but the goal was her first since her freshman season. "It was great to see Kim score," Hounsome said. "She has been our vocal leader, on and off the field. She provides a tremendous amount of energy to the program. I'm sure she bleeds (Rider) cranberry. She's a die-hard Rider soccer player."
"I didn't really score much in high school," said Reichel, who was an All-State defender at West Morris-Mendham High School, "and that was my first goal since my freshman year. It felt great to score today, especially after we fell behind 1-0."
Holy Cross (3-4-1) took a 1-0 lead in the 11th minute of play and scored the game winner 1:35 into overtime.
Rider is now 0-2-2 in overtime this year and has not won an overtime game since October 9, 2007, going 0-4-6 since. "We've got to learn how to play overtime," Hounsome said. "We have a young team and these players come to college having never played overtime. We have to learn how to raise the game at that point."
Holy Cross out-shot Rider 13-12 and had three corner kicks to Rider's two.
Rider senior goalkeeper Alex Post (Chalfont, Pa./Central Bucks West) made four saves. "Alex did good," Hounsome said.
Rider defeated Holy Cross in 2002, the only other time these two teams have met.
Rider begins MAAC play next weekend, hosting Niagara Friday night and Canisius Sunday afternoon. "We're in good position," Hounsome said. "We're playing well and we've got a lot of talented players. We've had a lot of experiences so far to learn from, some disappointments, like today, and I think we are ready. We can't wait for the conference games to start."
"We wanted to go into MAAC play with some momentum, having won our last two," Reichel, "but I still think we're ready. We love playing under the lights, so we're looking forward to that."
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