Box Score Men's College Soccer-MAAC Playoffs
#6 Fairfield University 1, #3 Rider University 0
LAWRENCEVILLE, NJ— The old saying “Offense wins games, Defense wins championships” came to fruition Saturday night.
The Rider Broncs came into the game as the highest scoring team in the nation with 40 goals.
Fairfield came into the game with the eighth best goals against average in the nation, having allowed just 11 goals all season, and a goalkeeper who ranked third in the nation in both goals against average and save percentage.
Fairfield did not win a championship Saturday night on Rider's Ben Cohen Field in front of over 400 Rider fans, but it came a lot closer.
The Rider men's soccer season came to an end Saturday night with a Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference playoff loss to Fairfield.
“This can be a pretty cruel game at times,” said Rider head coach Charlie Inverso. “I thought we were clearly the better team tonight.”
Fairfield (8-4-6) scored the lone goal of the game in the 53rd minute of play.
Rider out-shot Fairfield 12-9. “I thought it was pretty clear that we dominated the game,” Inverso said.
Fairfield keeper Matt Turner made six saves. “Their keeper played a good game,” Inverso said.
Rider sophomore goalkeeper David Pastuna (Robbinsville, NJ) made two saves.
Rider defeated Fairfield 3-0 on October 1.
The Broncs end the season with a record of 9-7-2, Rider's first winning season since 1998. “I'm really proud of these guys,” Inverso said. “I think we far exceeded everyone's expectations. This was an outstanding season for us.”
Rider was picked to finish eighth in the MAAC by the conference coaches this year and finished third.
“We're going to be a good team next year,” Inverso said, “and the year after. We're going to keep being a good team.”
In the first round of the MAAC Championship tournament, a good defense stopped a good offence.
“We scored 28 goals on this field this year,” Inverso said, “too bad we couldn't get the 29th or 30th tonight.”
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