Wednesday, September 28, 2022
Rider Broncs (1-5-1, 0-0-0 MAAC) vs. Manhattan Jaspers (2-3-2, 0-0-0 MAAC)
Location: Lawrenceville, NJ – Ben Cohen Field
Kickoff: 7 p.m.
Live Video: ESPN+
Live Stats: GoBroncs.com

What You Need To Know
- The Rider University men's soccer plays its MAAC opener at home against Manhattan Wednesday evening at 7 p.m. on ESPN+.
- After playing NJIT to a 2-2 tie in the Broncs' home opener on Sept. 18, the Broncs fell at Princeton, 3-0, on Sept. 23. Mo Bocher scored his first-career goal against NJIT.
- 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 on Sept. 14.
- Adel Al Masude leads the Broncs with two goals so far this season, including tallies in consecutive games at Rutgers and Central Connecticut. The goal against the Blue Devils was the game winner.
- Sophomores Dylan Kotch and Tom Skrocki also have 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 three assists, while Jack McGeechan has two and Jeremy Peterson has one.
- Guillaume Veinante has played the majority of time in net so far this season for the Broncs, posting a 2.37 goals-against average and a .636 saves percentage. His shutout at Central Connecticut was the first of his Rider career.
- Cidolit and Veinante had played every minute of the season prior to subbing out during the Princeton game.  
- Manhattan cut Rider's lead in the all-time series to 14-6-5 with a 2-0 win in the 2021 regular-season finale. The Jaspers have won two of the last three meetings after the Broncs were an unbeaten 4-0-1 in the prior five matches.
- John Velez leads the Jaspers with three goals, while Gunnar Studenhofft and Henry Hamilton have scored twice each. James Cotter has scored one goal and added two assists, while Nassim Akki is tied with Cotter for the team lead in assists. Dorian Bounab and Ronaldo Da Silva have also contributed a goal and an assist each.
- Danny DiMarco has played the majority of minutes in net for the Jaspers, posting a 2-0-2 record with two shutouts, a 0.67 goals-against average and an .813 saves percentage.   
- Manhattan was picked eighth in the MAAC 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.