Men's College Soccer

Rider University 2, Niagara University 0

NIAGARA UNIVERSITY, NY—The Broncs extended their unbeaten streak to four games with a Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference victory at Niagara Wednesday afternoon.

Rider (8-4-1, 3-2-1 MAAC) is 3-0-1 in its last four games. “After a dismal start (0-2 in the MAAC) we are right back in it,” said Rider head coach Charlie Inverso.

The victory was Rider's fifth on the road this year (5-2). “This was a huge win on the road,” Inverso said.  “That's the part I am most proud of, five wins on the road.”

Sophomore Jose Aguinaga (Madrid, Spain), the MAAC Player of the Week for his three goals in the last two games, had two assists Wednesday. “Jose is hitting his stride now,” Inverso said. “He had another good game.”

Rider took a 1-0 lead in the sixth minute of play on a header by senior Sonimi Halliday (Sicklerville, NJ/Timber Creek), an All-MAAC defender, on assists from junior Adrien Huss (Madrid, Spain) and Aguinaga on the corner kick.

“We came out hot,” Inverso said, “but we hit a wall so we sat in for a while and looked to counter, and Elliott got a great goal.”

Sophomore Elliott Otmani (LaCiotat, France) went top shelf and scored on another assist from Aguinaga to give Rider a 2-0 lead with under 30 minutes remaining in the second half. “We won the ball back on a counter and Jose slipped a perfect pass through to Elliott,” Inverso said.

The goal was Otmani's team-high fifth of the season.

Niagara (1-10-3, 0-4-1 MAAC) out-shot Rider 12-10.

Rider senior goalkeeper Ryan Baird (Plainfield, NJ/St. Peter's Prep) made seven saves. “He made two really good saves,” Inverso said. “One point blank and had a kick save late in the game. He came up huge.”

Baird improved to 5-1 in the Rider net this season. “I have faith in all of my goalies but Baird is hot right now with three wins in a row,” Inverso said.

The Broncs defeated Niagara 5-2 last year at Rider.  Rider lost 2-0 the last time the Broncs played here at Niagara, in 2013.  The teams tied in 2002. Rider holds a 9-7-3 advantage in the series.

“This is a brutal trip, we're playing without Flo (Valot) and Christian (Flath), and we're coming off of back-to-back overtime games,” Inverso said. “Our guys gave a great effort today.”

Rider has been playing without its top two scorers, All-MAAC senior Florian Valot (Monaco, France) and All-MAAC junior Christian Flath (Bargeshagen, Germany), due to injuries, Valot five games and Flath four games.

Rider returns home Saturday to host Manhattan at 1pm. “That's another big game. We need to get Christian and Flo healthy, and we'll be back to full strength,” Inverso said.  “We haven't been at full strength all season.”

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