Sunday, September 18, 2022
Rider Broncs (1-4-0) vs. NJIT Highlanders (2-3-1)
Location: Lawrenceville, NJ – Ben Cohen Field
Kickoff: 4 p.m.
Live Video: BroncVision
Live Stats: GoBroncs.com

What You Need To Know
- The Rider University men's soccer plays its home opener against NJIT Sunday afternoon at 4 p.m. on BroncVision.
- The Broncs opened the season with five-straight road contests. The last time Rider played as many as five-straight games away from home to start the season and had its home opener so late on the calendar was 2008, when the Broncs played their first six games at road or neutral fields, before playing in Lawrenceville for the first time on Sept. 21.
- After dropping four-straight games to open the season at Seton Hall, Virginia, Penn and Rutgers, the Broncs responded with a 2-0 clean sheet at Central Connecticut last time out.
- Adel Al Masude leads the Broncs with two goals so far this season, including tallies in each of the last two games at Rutgers and Central Connecticut. The goal against the Blue Devils was the game winner.
- Sophomores Dylan Kotch and Tom Skrocki also had one goal each. Kotch's goal was the first of his Rider career at Central Connecticut, while Skrocki found the back of the net at Penn.
- Lenny Cidolit has distributed a team-best two assists, while Jack McGeechan and Jeremy Peterson have one assist each.
- Guillaume Veinante has played every minute in net so far this season for the Broncs, posting a 2.20 goals-against average and a .621 saves percentage. His shutout at Central Connecticut was the first of his Rider career.
- Cidolit joins Veinante as the only Broncs to play all 450 minutes so far this season.
- NJIT has collected wins against James Madison and La Salle so far this season, while tying Drexel and falling to UConn, Iona and Villanova.
- Asembo Augo and Goncalo Franco lead the Highlanders with two goals apiece so far this year. Freshman Maximus Barboto, the son of Head Coach Fernando Barboto, leads NJIT with three assists, while Jose Del Valle has added a goal and an assist so far this year.
- Samuel Reisgys has played every minute of all six games in goal for the Highlanders this season, posting a 1.83 goals-against average and a .667 saves percentage.  
- NJIT was picked fifth of nine teams in the America East Preseason Poll.
- The Broncs were picked second in the MAAC by the league's coaches, a year after reaching the MAAC Championship Game for the fifth time in the last seven seasons last year. The Broncs erased a two-goal deficit in the title game at top-seeded Marist and played the Red Foxes to a tie before Marist advanced on PK's.
- Graduate forward Zaki Alibou, the 2021 MAAC Offensive Player of the Year, has been tabbed MAAC Preseason Player of the Year. Alibou led the Broncs with 10 goals and five assists a year ago and is listed on SoccerWire.com's Forwards to Watch for this season.
- Also back for the Broncs from the All-MAAC Teams last season are All-Rookie Team selections Adel Al Masude and Guillaume Veinante. Al Masude contributed four goals and four assists in his first season with the Broncs, while Veinante started nine of his 10 games played a year ago.
- The Broncs return 61 percent of their scoring and seven of 11 starters from a year ago. In addition to Alibou (10 goals) and Al Masude (4), Lenny Cidolit (3) and Regis Dulck (2) also scored multiple goals last season.
- The Broncs have qualified for the MAAC Championships in nine-straight seasons. Rider won MAAC Championships in 1997, 1998, 2015, 2016 and 2018, while finishing as runner up in 2004, 2017 and 2021.