Box Score Men's College Soccer
Rider University 3, Manhattan College 1
LAWRENCEVILLE, NJ—Welcome Back, Boys.
A pair of All-Conference players who have not played together in a conference game yet this year due to injuries, finally returned to the line-up on Saturday and both scored a goal.
Rider senior Florian Valot (Monaco, France), who has missed five games, and junior Christian Flath (Bargeshagen, Germany), who has missed four games, lead the Broncs to a Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference victory over Manhattan Saturday afternoon.
“It was good to see Flo and Christian back in,” said Rider head coach Charlie Inverso. “Obviously they were not at 100 percent today, they aren't fit, they weren't sharp today, but in seven conference games this is the first time they were on the field together.”
While the pair of Preseason All-MAAC players were sidelined, it was the play of sophomore Jose Aguinaga (Madrid, Spain) that has kept Rider 4-0-1 in its last five games. “After we lost at Saint Peter's if you had told me we would go the next five games without losing I don't know if I would have believed you.”
On Saturday, Aguinaga compiled a goal and an assist. “This is the time of year when Jose steps up,” Inverso said.
Rider (9-4-1, 4-2-1 MAAC) took a 1-0 lead in the 59th minute of play when Aguinaga and Valot executed a give-and-go inside the 18, with Valot scoring his fifth goal of the season. “That was a goal that I liked because I knew Flo was going to give me the ball and go,” Aguinaga said. “All I had to do was pass it back to him.”
Manhattan (2-8-1, 2-4 MAAC) tied the score at 1-1 with less than 15 minutes left to play in the second half. “It was a good recovery after we gave up that goal,” Inverso said.
Aguinaga, the MAAC Player of the Week last week, took a crossing pass from junior Rob Nardiello (Torquay, England) and headed in the game-winner with 8:47 left to play. The goal was Aguinaga's team-high fifth of the season. “Yesterday at practice I said I was going to get a header today and when Rob crossed it in I was right there.”
Aguinaga has four goals and three assists in his last four games.
Flath, in his first game since September 30, scored on an 18 yard blast off of a rebound with 4:39 remaining for the final score. It was Flath's fifth goal in 10 games this year.
Rider out-shot Manhattan 14-8. Rider senior goalkeeper Ryan Baird (Plainfield, NJ/St. Peter's Prep) made four saves and improves to 6-1 in the Rider net.
Rider won the last two meetings with Manhattan, both by a 1-0 score. The last time Manhattan defeated the Broncs was in 2012, a 2-0 Jasper win at Rider.
The Broncs now hold a 12-4-4 advantage in the series with Manhattan that began in 1997.
Rider is off until October 24 when the Broncs travel to Fairfield for a 7pm game.
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