Men's College Soccer
Rider University 1, Manhattan College 0
LAWRENCEVILLE, NJ— The term 'set piece' is used in soccer to refer to a situation when the ball is returned to open play following a stoppage, particularly in a forward area of the field. Most often, the term is used to refer to free kicks and corners. Many goals result from such positions and attacking players spend much time practicing them; set pieces are one area where tactics and routines can be worked out in practice. Some players specialize in set pieces. And some coaches.
At Rider, they have stopped calling them 'set pieces' and have begun calling them 'set Povia's'. “Larry (assistant coach Larry Povia) is doing a great job teaching these set pieces to the guys,” said Rider head coach Charlie Inverso. “Sometimes it comes down to execution after the guys put in the time in practice. We work on that in practice and we've been dangerous in them.”
“Coach Povia works so hard on these 'set pieces' in practice,” said sophomore Sonimi Halliday (Sicklerville, NJ/Timber Creek). “That's his thing, that's his baby. All the credit to him.”
Halliday scored on a header off of a corner kick with just 8:03 remaining to give Rider a Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference victory over Manhattan Saturday afternoon on the Ben Cohen Field.
For Halliday, it was his fourth goal of the season and his third game-winner. “I didn't even realize that,” Halliday said. “It's a good feeling.”
“The last time Sonimi had four goals I think he was 10 years old,” Inverso said of his defender. “He's a guy who comes to work every day and he's a role model to the freshmen.”
Freshman Christian Flath (Bargeshagen, Germany) took the corner kick and Halliday headed it in on a set piece. “Christian is a gem,” Inverso said. “He's done a great job.”
“Christian put a perfect ball in again,” Halliday said, “and I just happened to be in the right place at the right time.”
Flath leads the MAAC in points (17) and assists (seven) and ranks second in the MAAC in goals (five).
Rider (7-5-1, 2-2-1 MAAC) out-shot Manhattan (2-8-1, 2-1-1 MAAC) 11-10, including 6-3 in the second half. “Manhattan was in second place coming into today and are very much improved,” Inverso said. “Any team that can beat Fairfield the way they did is a good team. They play hard.”
Rider freshman goalkeeper David Pastuna (Robbinsville, NJ) made three saves for the shutout, his third.
The Broncs own a 10-4-4 advantage in the series with Manhattan that began in 1997.
Manhattan came to Rider and won 2-0 last year. The Broncs won 1-0 at Manhattan in 2011 and had defeated the Jaspers three straight times before last year.
Rider travels to Niagara Wednesday for the first of three consecutive road games. “We've got the long trip on Wednesday,” Inverso said, “and another trip on Saturday (Fairfield) so it's going to be a long week, a tough stretch. We have to gear up. We need to go on the road and get a couple of wins. That's what we play for, this time of year.”
The Broncs need to get some wins and some goals, most likely on 'set Povia's.'
-ru-
