Box Score Men's College Soccer
Princeton University 3, Rider University 1
PRINCETON, NJ—The Tiger and the Bronc (horse) are two of those animal signs in Chinese zodiac where significant similarities outnumber the differences.
On Tuesday night, the winless Tigers defeated the undefeated Broncs. “They are a really good team,” said Rider head coach Charlie Inverso. “They play a similar style to us.”
In Chinese astrology, the Bronc (horse) is a highly energetic and supremely confident personality who is capable of shooting brilliant ideas and quickly understanding how things work. Likewise, the Tiger possesses much of the same agile mental faculties and ability to conceive far-reaching ideas.
On Tuesday night, the highly skilled and confident Broncs, ranked 22nd in the nation, were capable of out-shooting the agile Tigers 17-9, but it was the Tigers who reached the back of the net three times.
“It was a hard-fought, competitive game,” Inverso said, “but it was disappointing. I thought we played well enough where we could have pulled the game out.”
The Tigers took a 2-1 lead with 11 minutes left to play and went up 3-1 with less than eight minutes remaining.
“I thought we played pretty well,” Inverso said. “We were pretty unlucky not to score a couple of times in the first half.” Rider hit two posts in the first half. “In the second half we came really close to scoring a bunch of times.”
Princeton took a 1-0 lead in the 61st minute of play but Rider freshman Clement Bourret (Paris, France/Lycee Jean Giraudoux) came right back and scored just 12 minutes later, on assists from junior Elliott Otmani (LaCiotat, France) and first-year senior Fernando Pena (Madrid, Spain), to tie the score at 1-1. It was the second goal of the season for Bourret.
“I'm proud of our guys,” Inverso said. “We scored not long after they scored and that's a good sign. This team fights. That's one of the things we do best. We battle back.”
Rider (4-1) senior goalkeeper Ryan Baird (Plainfield, NJ/St. Peter's Prep) made one save.
“Princeton had to be the best 0-2 team in the country coming into the game,” Inverso said. “They play a big-time schedule and I felt both of their first two games (losses to West Virginia and St. John's) could have gone either way.”
Separated by just eight miles, Rider and Princeton had not met since 2012. The last time Rider defeated Princeton was 2002.
Rider and Princeton have now met 20 times since the series began in 1941, with the Tigers holding a 14-3-3 advantage in the series.
Rider plays at LIU-Brooklyn Friday evening at 5pm. “It is early in the season and this is just one game,” Inverso said. “We'll come back and get ready for Friday.”
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