Box Score Women's College Soccer
Rider University 2, Iona College 0
LAWRENCEVILLE, NJ—Offense wins games, defense wins championships.
The 2014 Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Champions are defending their Title with Defense.
The Broncs won for the fifth time in the last six games with a MAAC victory over Iona Saturday. “That's good, but we are 3-1 in conference games, that's the most important thing,” said Rider head coach Drayson Hounsome.
All five of those victories are by way of shutout. “That is something we have preached and tried to focus in on,” Hounsome said. “We take pride in defensively shutting teams down. I thought today was another good performance.”
“The defense was solid again today,” said Rider junior goalkeeper Bethany-May Howard (Glastonbury, England/Bridgwater College), who made four saves for her fifth shutout of the season and her 11th shutout in the last two years. “I give the credit to them. They have worked really hard in practice.”
Howard leads the MAAC in saves with 76. “It keeps it entertaining for me,” Howard said. “The shots they had today were long range shots, mostly right at me. Credit to the defense for limiting them to that.”
Rider (6-4, 3-1 MAAC) took a 1-0 lead in the 16th minute of play when sophomore Ellie Smith (Norwich, England/Norwich City) took a crossing pass from freshman Kourtney Cunningham (Whitehall, PA/Whitehall) and scored her third goal in the last two games after coming back from an injury.
Rider took a 2-0 lead five minutes later when junior Caroline Healy (Dublin, Ireland/Alexandra College) headed in her team-high fifth goal of the season.
Rider out-shot Iona (1-11, 0-3 MAAC) 10-9. “We didn't play our best but we got the goals,” Hounsome said. “I am very happy with the outcome.”
With the win the Broncs are undefeated (3-0) at home this season and are 16-2-3 in their last 21 home games.
Last season Rider won 2-0 at Iona. The last time Rider hosted Iona the Broncs won 3-0 in 2013. Rider and Iona have now met 19 times and Rider holds an 11-6-2 advantage in the series that began in 1997.
The last time Iona defeated Rider was during the 2012 season, a 1-0 decision in Lawrenceville.
Rider travels to MAAC preseason favorite Monmouth Wednesday night. Rider has fond memories of that field, where the 2014 Broncs won the semifinal game against the host Hawks and the championship game of the MAAC Tournament.
“We haven't beaten them in regular season play," Howard said. “Obviously we have confidence that we can. Monmouth is a very good team but we're looking forward to it.”
“Monmouth is a very tough team,” Hounsome said. “We will be going in as the underdogs, just like we were last year. We have some special players with a special character who are able to win wherever they go.”
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