FAIRFIELD, CT – Sophomore
Makenzie Rodrigues (Seattle, WA/Forest Ridge) scored twice, including the game winner, as the Rider University women's soccer team earned a season-opening 4-1 road win at Fairfield Tuesday night. With the win, the Broncs open the season at 1-0, while the Stags slip to 1-0.
Following a scoreless first half, Rodrigues got the Broncs on the board in the 51
st minute with an unassisted right-footed strike from just inside the top, left corner of the 18-yard box into the far upper 90. Fairfield evened the score on a penalty kick following a takedown in the box.
Rodrigues responded just over three minutes later with her second goal, which proved to be the game winner.
Camryn Dees' (Pickerington, OH/Pickerington H.S. North) lined a low pass into the box that deflected off a Fairfield defender to Rodrigues for a point-blank opportunity with the Stags' keeper. She went low inside the left post for the game winner.
Dees would add a score of her own off a free kick from 30 yards out in the 64
th minute, before
Hailey Russell (Riverside, NJ/Riverside) contributed the final dagger, converting on a third chance off a corner kick after the initial shot was blocked and the second was saved. But the rebound was left in front for Russell to deposit into the net. Freshman
Gabriela Garcia (Caracas, Venezuela) picked up the assist.
Notes
- The Broncs won their season opener for second-straight year following a 3-2 overtime victory against Wagner in the 2019 season. They're 2-0-1 in their last three season openers, with a 1-1 tie to open 2018 against Drexel.
- Four Broncs –
Hannah Freeman (Lowville, NY/Lowville),
Ellie Sciancalepore (Randolph, NJ/Randolph), Garcia and
Jenny Skrumbis (Long Beach, CA/Long Beach Poly) made their collegiate debuts.
- Rodrigues,
Niamh Cashin (Nottingham, England/All Saints Academy),
Teresa Richardson (Las Vegas, NV/Bishop Gorman),
Cameron Santers (Wayne, NJ/Wayne Hills) and Sciancalepore each played all 90 minutes.
Broncs By The Numbers
- Sciancalepore made five saves in net for the Broncs.
- Rodrigues halved her scoring from her freshman year, when she had four goals on the season.
- The Broncs' leader with six goals a year ago, Russell scored her seventh career goal.
- Dees' tally was the first of her collegiate career after collecting three points, all on assists, as a freshman.
- Fairfield took a 16-15 edge in shots, but Rider put nine on target to the Stags' six.
- Both teams took four corner kicks.
