Thursday, November 8, 2018
#5 Rider Broncs (8-9-1) vs. #1 Fairfield Stags (11-4-2)
Location: Fairfield, CT – Lessing Field
Kickoff: 7 p.m.
Live Video – MAAC.TV
Live Stats – FairfieldStags.com
Tickets – MAACSports.com
 
What You Need To Know
- Rider qualified for the MAAC Championships for the fifth-straight season on the strength of wins in each of its last two games of the regular season over Siena and Canisius, and took a 2-0 win at No. 4 Iona in the quarterfinals on Sunday.
- The Broncs have now reached the MAAC Semifinals in four-straight years. Rider has also reached the MAAC Championship Game in each of the last three years.
- The Broncs are 14-8-2 in 24 all-time MAAC Tournament contests covering 12 berths.
- Rider is 2-0 in MAAC Tournament penalty-kick shootouts. The 10th-seeded Broncs advanced past No. 7 Manhattan in 2003 first round and won a shootout against Siena, 3-1, in the 2016 semifinals. 
- Sylvain Coco scored his third goal of the year for the game-winner in the 74^th minute in the MAAC Quarterfinals at Iona and Pablo DeCastro added his team-leading seventh goal in the 85^th minute.
- Elliott Otmani assisted on Coco's game winner at Iona for his team-leading ninth of the year. It was the 21st of his career, moving him into a tie with All-American Christian Flath, as well as Neil Charles, for sixth in program history. Otmani's next goal would also make him just the third Bronc to score 30 goals and distribute 20 assists, joining Smith (46 goals, 20 assists) and Craig Wicken (49 goals, 24 assists).
- Otmani has now registered a point in all seven Rider wins this season against MAAC foes with four goals and seven assists in those seven games. He had both a goal and at least one assist in three games, while registering either a goal or assist in the other four. Only once did Otmani find his way into the point column when the Broncs' lost – Oct. 13 against Fairfield, when he had a goal and an assist.
- Rider has posted shutouts in each of its last three games, defeating Siena, 5-0, Canisius, 2-0, and Iona, 2-0.
- Four Broncs – Coco, Arthur Herpreck, Emmanuel Kouma and Otmani were named to the All-MAAC Second Team on Nov. 6.
- The Broncs dropped a heartbreaker, 3-2, to the Stags on Oct. 13. Rider scored the first two goals, but conceded three-straight in the second half, including an own goal for the game-winner in the 85^th minute. It was the second-straight Fairfield win by a Rider own goal in the series, including the 2017 MAAC Championship Game.
- Fairfield improved its lead in the all-time series with the Broncs to 20-8-1 with the Oct. 13 win, including the last three meetings.
- Fairfield has a 4-2 edge over Rider in MAAC Championship meetings. The Broncs won two of the first three conference tournament meetings in the 1998 MAAC Championship Game and the 2003 quarterfinals, while falling to the Stags in the 2000, 2011 and 2014 quarterfinals and the 2017 Championship Game.   
- The Stags went an unbeaten 8-0-2 in MAAC play this season. Aside from a 5-0 win over Canisius, all of Fairfield's MAAC games were decided by a goal or less.  
- Rider was the only MAAC team to score more than one goal against the Stags this season.
- The Broncs played the Oct. 13 meeting without the services of their two All-MAAC center backs, Coco (fifth caution in prior game) and Herpreck (red card on second yellow in prior game), due to card suspensions.  
- Led by MAAC Coach of the Year Carl Rees, Fairfield also features Goalkeeper of the Year Gordon Botterill and Defensive Player of the Year Jonas Vergin. Botterill and Vergin were joined on the All-MAAC First Team by Diego Casielles and Matt McGlinchey, while Cormac Pike, Kheireddine Kourdassi, Jonathan Filipe and Jack Weiss took All-Rookie Team honors.
- Casielles leads the Stags with five goals and 11 points, while Filipe has four goals. Weiss, Joseph Meyer and Santiago Gonzalez have each scored three goals. McGlinchey has a team-high six assists, while Pike has three and Weiss has two.
- Botterill has played all but nine minutes in goal this season for Fairfield, posting a 0.97 goals-against average, a .770 saves percentage and five clean sheets (one combined).
- The Broncs opened MAAC play with three-straight wins over Iona, Marist and Niagara before suffering three-straight heartbreaking losses on game-winning goals in the last six minutes of regulation or overtime against Manhattan, Fairfield and Quinnipiac. Rider got back in the win column on Oct. 20 with a 2-1 road win at hOURglass rival Monmouth before falling to another in-state foe Saint Peter's, 1-0, on Oct. 24. Rider ended the league slate with 5-0 and 2-0 clean sheets against Siena and Canisius, respectively.
- Fairly appropriately, DeCastro tied Otmani for the team lead with his sixth goal at Canisius. Otmani scored his sixth in the prior match at Siena on a PK that DeCastro drew. This time, DeCastro finished the chance awarded after Otmani was taken down inside the box.
- Otmani was named MAAC Offensive Player of the Week for the second time this year and the fifth time in his career on Oct. 29 after scoring a goal and dishing out two assists against Siena.
- Clement Bourret registered his first points of the year with a goal and an assist on Sylvain Coco's game-winning goal on Oct. 20 at Monmouth.
- Rider Head Coach Charlie Inverso earned the 500^th win of his collegiate coaching career on Sept. 29 at Marist. He earned the first 434 victories in his 24-year tenure as Head Coach at Mercer County Community College, before winning 66 games since becoming Head Coach of the Broncs in 2011.
- Otmani and Pablo Gatinois were named MAAC Offensive and Defensive Players of the Week, respectively, on Oct. 1 following the Broncs' wins over Iona and Marist. Otmani scored and assisted in each of the two games, while Gatinois shut out the Red Foxes, including a stop on a penalty kick, and posted a 0.50 goals-against average for the week.
- After scoring just twice through the season's first seven games, Rider scored seven goals in the next three games.
- After not registering a point in the first 44 games of his collegiate career, Kouma picked up assists in consecutive games against Marist and Niagara on Sept. 29 and Oct. 3.
- The Broncs took a 1-0 win on Sept. 8 at La Salle on DeCastro's goal off an assist from Otmani.
- Gatinois earned his first start, win and shutout in the 1-0 clean sheet at La Salle. Gatinois made one save.
- Redshirt freshman goalkeeper Garret Potter started his first three games this season following the graduation of former keeper David Pastuna. Potter made five saves in the three games. He got another start at LIU Brooklyn and made six saves.
- After opening the season with a 1-1 tie against Fairleigh Dickinson on Aug. 24, the Broncs fell to NJIT, 1-0, on a goal in the 88^th minute. Otmani scored on a PK in the 11^th minute against NJIT.
- Potter, Guillermo Pavia Vidal and Borja Ares Ortiz each made their Rider debuts against FDU.  
- The Broncs returned nine starters from a team that advanced to the MAAC Championship Game for the third-straight season in 2017.
- Otmani was named to the prestigious MAC Hermann Trophy Watch List, representative of collegiate soccer's top individual honor.
- Rider has won four MAAC Championships in its 21 years in the league, including back-to-back titles in its first two years in the league (1997-98) and 2015-16.