Box Score Women's College Soccer
Rider University 5, Fairleigh Dickinson University 0
LAWRENCEVILLE, NJ— After falling to the #10 ranked Scarlet Knights last week, the Broncs successfully defended their castle, Ben Cohen Field, Thursday night when Rider defeated the Knights of Fairleigh Dickinson University in another Battle of New Jersey.
“Five to nil against a team we have not beaten since 2012, I'm really happy about that,” said Rider head coach Drayson Hounsome. “They've won their conference two years in a row and went to the NCAA Tournament last year, so that shows how we can play. Very happy with that performance and the result.”
Junior Ellie Smith (Norwich, England/Norwich City) scored three goals and sophomore Kourtney Cunningham (Whitehall, PA/Whitehall) had two assists to lead Rider to victory.
Cunningham assisted on the first two Rider goals, giving Rider (1-1) a 1-0 lead in the 49th minute on the first collegiate goal by freshman Sofia Soares (Sao Paulo, Brazil/St. Nicholas) and a 2-0 lead in the 60th minute on Smith's first goal. “Kourtney had a very strong performance tonight,” Hounsome said.
With the hat trick Smith now has 10 career goals. “Ellie has been playing well all summer,” Hounsome said. “She's looked good in the preseason games. She has looked dangerous.” Smith had seven shots Thursday, six on goal.
“We all worked well together as a team,” Smith said. “After the result last week we knew we had to pick it up and we all worked so hard.”
Freshman Bethany Feinstein (Howell, NJ/Howell) scored her first collegiate goal to give Rider a 4-0 lead.
Rider senior goalkeeper Bethany-May Howard (Glastonbury, England/Bridgwater College) made three saves for her 15th career shutout, a Rider record.
Rider out-shot FDU (1-2) 18-9.
Rider lost in overtime at FDU last season when the NEC Champs scored in the 107th minute with a goal in the upper 90. Howard made a career-high 15 saves in that game.
Rider and FDU have now met 10 times with Rider holding a 5-4-1 advantage.
The last time Rider defeated FDU was 2012, with FDU winning the previous three, two in overtime.
Rider travels to Wagner for a 2pm game Sunday. “Hopefully we can follow up our first home win with our first away win on Sunday,” Hounsome said.
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