Tuesday, September 11, 2018
Rider Broncs (1-2-1) vs. Lehigh Mountain Hawks (2-3-0)
Location: Lawrenceville, NJ – Ben Cohen Field
Kickoff: 7 p.m.
Live Video – BroncVision
Live Stats – GoBroncs.com
 
What You Need To Know
- The Broncs face the Mountain Hawks for the 37^th time in the all-time series. Lehigh owns a slim 17-15-4 lead in the all-time series. Lehigh won last year's meeting, 3-2, in Bethlehem, PA.
- The Broncs took a 1-0 win on Sept. 8 at La Salle on Pablo DeCastro's (Madrid, Spain/Universidad Francisco de Vitoria) goal off an assist from Elliott Otmani (La Ciotat, France/Bonaparte).
- The assist gives Otmani 60 points for his Rider career.
- Sophomore goalkeeper Pablo Gatinois (Madrid, Spain/Lycee Francais de Madrid [Oregon State]) earned his first start, win and shutout in the 1-0 clean sheet at La Salle. Gatinois made one save.
- 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. Elliott Otmani scored on a PK in the 11^th minute against NJIT. The goal was the 24^th in Otmani's career.
- The Broncs were dealt another tough defeat on Sept. 5, falling in the 94^th minute to Temple.
- 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.
- Potter, Guillermo Pavia Vidal (Madrid, Spain/La Salle Sagrado Corazon) and Borja Ares Ortiz (Entrambasaguas, Cantabria, Spain/Universidad Europea del Atlantico) each made their Rider debuts against FDU.  
- After falling in its first two games of the season against UConn and Drexel, Lehigh (2-3-0) bounced back with consecutive victories over George Washington and St. John's. Binghamton took a 2-1 win over the Mountain Hawks on Friday. The Mountain Hawks have scored one goal in all five of their games, as both of Lehigh's wins have been 1-0 clean sheets and all three losses were by 2-1 tallies.
- Mark Forrest leads Lehigh with two goals and an assist so far this season. Trevor Koski, Oscar Greene and Tommy Dohko have also scored once each.   
- Will Smith has played every minute in net for Lehigh, posting a 1.19 goals-against average and an .806 saves percentage.
- The Broncs return nine starters from a team that advanced to the MAAC Championship Game for the third-straight season in 2017.
- Included in the returning cast are a pair of players who accounted for 17 of the Broncs 30 goals a year ago in Elliott Otmani (9 goals, 2 assists) and Pablo DeCastro (8 goals, 3 assists).
- Otmani was named to the prestigious MAC Hermann Trophy Watch List, representative of collegiate soccer's top individual honor.
- In addition to Otmani, an Academic All-America First Team honoree, backs Arthur Herpreck and Emmanuel Kouma return after joining Otmani on the All-Region Team.
- Six of Rider's league-high seven All-MAAC selections from a year ago return, including First-Team honorees Otmani, Kouma and Sylvain Coco, Second-Teamers DeCastro and Arthur Herpreck and All-Rookie Team selection Mathis Catanzaro.
- The Broncs' two losses to the starting line-up will not be easy to replace – Second-Team All-American and program assists record-holder Jose Aguinaga, who was drafted 85^th overall by the New York Red Bulls, and goalkeeper David Pastuna, a five-year member of the Broncs who finished his career with 30 wins and 12 shutouts, good for second and third in program history, respectively.   
- Otmani, Coco and Kouma were selected to the Preseason All-MAAC Team.
- The Rider defense limited the opposition to a 0.99 goals-against average in 2017, while the offense produced 1.49 goals per game.
- 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.