Men's College Soccer
Saint Joseph's University 3, Rider University 0
PHILADELPHIA, PA- As well as being a member of the most well known family in history, Saint Joseph was also a carpenter by trade. Even two-thousand years ago carpenters knew they were only as good as the tools they had.
The Broncs lost two of their major tools, All-MAAC sophomore defender Jens Warncke (Lohne, Germany) and team captain junior Eric Elgin (Mechanicsburg, PA/Cumberland Valley) to injuries early in the game, as the Broncs fell to 0-4 on the season with a loss at Saint Joseph's Saturday night.
"Having to pull our two center backs from the game due to injuries contributed heavily to the first two goals we gave up," said Rider head coach Charlie Inverso. "To be honest they were both about 60 percent coming in."
The Hawks took a 1-0 lead just 4:26 into the game and went up 2-0 in the seventh minute of play. "We went down two goals really quick," Inverso said. "That put us in a situation where we are chasing the game."
Saint Joseph's out shot Rider (0-4) 21-15. Rider senior Dave Benavidez (Peoria, Ill/Richwoods) had three of Rider's 15 shots. "Benavidez was busy around the goal," Inverso said. "He did some nice things."
St. Joe's (2-4) made it 3-0 in the 54th minute of play.
Making his first start of the season Rider senior goalkeeper Jason Giordano (Massapequa Park, N.Y./Massapequa) made four saves. "Gio was solid in goal," Inverso said. "He did well and made some good saves. I never had any worries in him. He's always solid."
Rider lost 2-0 to St. Joe's in 2008. Rider defeated the Hawks 2-0 in Philadelphia in 2007.
Rider and St. Joe's were East Coast Conference rivals 1974-1982. St. Joe's holds a 20-11-5 advantage in the series that began in 1963.
Saint Joseph is the patron saint of workers. "We're working hard and our effort was good tonight," Inveso said."In every game I've coached here I haven't been able to criticize this team's effort. We didn't play a bad game tonight, they were just better. The good news is that for a good portion of the game we had six or seven freshmen on the field and they did well."
Rider hosts St. Francis-NY Monday at 4pm on the Ben Cohen Field. "We're going to have our hands full on Monday," Inveso said. "We just need to keep moving forward."
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