Women's College Soccer

Rider University 4, Wagner College 1

STATEN ISLAND, NY—Tara Ballay, have a day!

Rider junior Tara Ballay (Delran, NJ/Delran) compiled two goals and two assists to lead Rider to a come-from-behind victory at Wagner Sunday afternoon. 

“This was our first come-from-behind win,” said Rider head coach Drayson Hounsome, “and that is something with a young team that they have to learn to do and they demonstrated today that they have the ability to do it.”

It was the second two-goal game of the season for Ballay and her third two-goal game in the last two seasons.

“Tara is aggressive, she wins headers for us, and she can also score goals and create goals for other people,” Hounsome said.  “She brought all of those things to the game today.”

Rider freshman Ellie Smith (Norwich, England/Norwich City) and freshman Brianna Magana (Sicklerville, N.J. /Timber Creek) assisted on Ballay's goals. “Smithy played really well,” Hounsome said.  “She caused Wagner a lot of problems.”

Ballay took a pass from Magana and scored with just two minutes left in the first half to tie the score at 1-1. “I was set up with a perfect ball from Bri in the box,” Ballay said.  Ballay took a pass from Smith and scored for the final score with eight minutes left to play.

Ballay now has four goals on the season and 10 in her career.

Rider sophomore goalkeeper Bethany-May Howard (Glastonbury, England/Bridgwater College) made three saves.

Wagner (3-2) scored just 15 seconds into the game on a rebound after a free kick was blocked. “We gave them a head start early,” Hounsome said.  “We knew we had to turn it around and come out hard and aggressive to make that goal up,” Ballay said. 

Rider sophomore Priscilla Santos (Glendora, Calif./Glendora) took a pass from Ballay and scored on a blast from 20 yards out to give Rider a 2-1 lead with 30 minutes left to play. It was the second goal of the season for Santos and the fifth of her career. “Priscilla's goal was amazing,” Ballay said.  “I don't know how she placed that ball so perfectly in the upper left corner.”

Rider freshman Alanna McDougall (Valley Stream, N.Y. /Valley Stream North) scored her first collegiate goal on another assist from Ballay to give Rider a 3-1 lead with 12 minutes remaining. “I really like assists,” Ballay said.  “Alanna scored an amazing goal with her left foot.”

“We got great performances from our freshmen,” Hounsome said.  “Alanna got a good goal. It was an all-around good performance from the entire team.”

Rider (3-2) out-shot Wagner 19-14, including 13-4 in shots on goal. “We played very well,” Hounsome said.  “The team responded very well after a tough loss on Friday night and played well against a tough team. Today we didn't let the early goal affect the game. We were able to keep composed and keep our focus.”

Wagner lost the season opener at Manhattan before winning three straight home games, over Iona, Saint Peter's and Stony Brook. “We only had a few wins on the road last year so that is something we wanted to improve on this year,” Ballay said.

Rider and Wagner have now met seven times in the series that began in 1997, with Rider leading the series 4-3. Rider beat Wagner in the last meeting 5-0 in 2011.

Rider travels to Delaware State Wednesday. “Another short turn-around on the road,” Hounsome said.  “We're going to try to come out aggressive again on Wednesday and win another road game,” Ballay said.

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