Men's College Soccer

Iona College 1, Rider University 0

LAWRENCEVILLE, NJ— The forecast was for slight rain on Saturday. There should have been a Gael Storm Warning.

The Iona Gaels gave the Rider Broncs their first loss at home this season in a Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference game Saturday afternoon.

“Iona is a really good team,” said Rider head coach Charlie Inverso.

Iona (5-3-2, 2-0 MAAC) scored the only goal of the game 10 minutes into the second half off of the foot of All-MAAC and All-Region forward Maganto Ignacio.

“Iona has one of the best players in the country,” Inverso said of the 5'7” Maganto.  “He showed why he is today.  The game plan was to always know where he is. We lost him twice and he scored once and almost scored twice.”

Ignacio scored all three goals in Rider's 3-0 loss at Iona last year.

Iona out-shot Rider (4-3-2, 1-1 MAAC) 18-16. Both teams had four corner kicks. “If we put away our chances we win this game,” Inverso said. “Regardless of the shot totals I think we had more chances, we just couldn't finish. That's why this is a difficult sport. You can do all of the right things but when you don't put away your chances it can be really tough to swallow.”

Rider sophomore goalkeeper David Pastuna (Robbinsville, NJ) made a career-high 10 saves.  “Dave came up big a couple of times,” Inverso said. 

Iona is now 4-0-1 in its last five games, coming off a 1-0 MAAC win over Siena.   The tie was to the powerful Huskies of UConn. “Iona tied Boston College this year, and tied UConn,” Inverso said.  “This is a really good team.”

Rider and Iona have now met 17 times since the series began in 1997, with Iona holding a 10-6-1 advantage in the series. The last time Rider defeated Iona was during the 2005 season.

“I hope this loss stings a bit so we come back strong on Wednesday,” Inverso said.

Rider travels to Canisius Wednesday. “It's a hard place to play,” Inverso said of the Buffalo college.  “It's a long trip but we've got to be ready.”

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