Men's College Soccer
St. Francis-NY 1, Rider University 0
BROOKLYN, NY-The Broncs lost at Saint Francis Saturday night. "The effort was there in the second half, we just didn't come away with the win," said Rider head coach Charlie Inverso. "The game was back in forth. We could have pulled it out but we didn't."
St. Francis-NY (5-2-1) scored the only goal of the game with just six minutes left in the second half. "The kid scored a really good goal," Inverso said. "He turned around and hit a shot with his left foot from about 22 yards out and put it in the upper right corner."
The Terriers out-shot Rider 18-7, including 10-3 in the scoreless first half. "We did not play a good first half," Inverso said, "but we did play a gutsy second half."
Rider (1-6-1) junior goalkeeper Jason Giordano (Massapequa Park, N.Y./Massapequa) made six saves. "To be honest I felt we were lucky to not be down a goal or two in the first half," Inverso said. "Gio had a couple of good saves. He kept us in the game."
Rider and St. Francis-NY are former Northeast Conference rivals. Rider and SFC have each won six games in the series that began in 1987. St. Francis defeated Rider 3-0 last year in Lawrenceville.
"We're battling and we're making teams earn it," Inverso said. "We're just coming up a bit short."
The Broncs begin conference play September 30 when Rider hosts Iona in a 7pm Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference game on the Ben Cohen Field.
"I'm excited about playing the MAAC portion of the schedule," Inverso said. "It gives the guys something to shoot for."
The Broncs will be playing just their third home game out of the first nine. "We've certainly been road-tested," Inverso said. "We battled in these six road games. Now, being at home and beginning conference play, we have a chance to start all over."
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