Men's College Soccer
University of Pennsylvania 7, Rider University 2
PRINCETON-The Broncs lost to the Penn Quakers in the second round of the Princeton Invitational Sunday afternoon. "We fought hard but we made way too many mistakes," said Rider head coach Charlie Inverso. "Defense was one of our strong suits last year but today it was not and that is something we need to work on."
Rider (0-7) got on the board in the opening minutes of the second half when senior Dave Benavidez (Peoria, Ill/Richwoods) took a pass from freshman Robert Kroschwitz (Pipersville, PA/Palisades) and scored his fourth goal in his last 15 games.
Sophomore Ryan Walsh (Chesterfield, NJ/Northern Burlington Regional) scored his second goal of the season on an assist by Benavidez to cut the lead to 6-2.
Rider senior goalkeeper Jason Giordano (Massapequa Park, N.Y./Massapequa) made five saves, including one on a penalty kick.
"When you get beat like we did today it is hard to find positives," Inverso said, "but I guess that (saving a PK) would be one."
Rider freshman Matti Grahle (Oldenberg, Germany) and freshman Chris Miller (Little Egg Harbor, NJ/St. Augustine Prep) were named to the all-tournament team. "Those two along with (freshman) Yannic Fallack (Meerbusch, Germany) I felt played very well this weekend," Inverso said. "I thought Matti was outstanding, one of the best players in the tournament."
The Quakers (2-6) took a 1-0 lead in the 20th minute of play and made it 2-0 six minutes later.
Penn took a 3-0 lead with 12 minutes left in the first half after a miffed punt and led 4-0 at the half.
Penn took a 5-1 lead with 30 minutes left and went up 6-1 five minutes later. The Quakers scored with 12 minutes left for the final score.
Duke Lacroix, the reigning Ivy League and Philadelphia Soccer Six Rookie of the Year, had two goals and two assists for Penn.
Penn out-shot Rider 18-9.
"I think this tough schedule we have played, five out of seven on the road, will make us better," Inverso said. "We played a lot of freshmen (eight, at least five on the field at any given time) but we're looking at getting better for this year, not for future years. I guarantee we are going to turn this around."
Rider hosts Temple Saturday night at 7pm, Rider's sixth away game. "We gotta get a win," Inverso said.
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