Box Score Men's College Soccer
Rider University 1, Monmouth University 1 (2OT)
LAWRENCEVILLE, NJ— To be the best, you have to beat the best. Coming into Wednesday night, Monmouth was the best. Now, that conversation is open for discussion.
“Monmouth is the defending champs, coached by one of the best coaches in the country, but I thought we were better tonight,” said Rider head coach Charlie Inverso. “If we want to be the best team, we have to come out and beat them.”
The Broncs tied Monmouth in a Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference game Wednesday night. “To be honest with you we played well enough to win tonight,” Inverso said, “but that's not good enough. We still have to find a way to win.”
Monmouth (7-3-2, 3-0-1 MAAC) scored in the 53rd minute of play on a rebound.
Rider (6-4-1, 1-2-1 MAAC) came right back and scored nine minutes later when sophomore Jose Aguinaga (Madrid, Spain) scored on a header off of a pass from junior Adrien Huss (Madrid, Spain).
“Monmouth does not give up goals,” Inverso said of the Hawks, who have allowed just nine goals all season. “Especially when they got a lead. For us to come back is a real character effort.”
Rider out-shot first place Monmouth 12-11.”We had a lot of chances on goal, we had a lot of the flow,” Inverso said.
Rider junior goalkeeper David Pastuna (Robbinsville, NJ) made two saves.
Since Rider and Monmouth (and Saint Peter's) are all about an hour away from each other, the three-way rivalry between the New Jersey MAAC teams is called the hOURglass Rivalry. The spelling of hOURglass represents the fact that it is OUR rivalry.
Last season Rider lost 1-0 at Monmouth, the third year in a row the Hawks beat the Broncs.
The last time Rider defeated Monmouth was 1998, with the Hawks winning the last nine meetings before Wednesday.
Monmouth holds a 15-6-4 advantage in the series.
Rider travels to Siena Saturday. “We are 100 percent better than we were this time last week,” Inverso said. “That's something to build on.”
The game Wednesday was New Jersey Youth Soccer Night with a crowd of almost 600 people. “It was a great night for the sport of soccer with a great crowd,” Inverso said.
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