BURLINGTON, VT – Babacar Diene (Thies, Senegal/CEM Ballabey) scored his team-leading 13th goal of the season, but the Rider University men's soccer team fell at the University of Vermont, 3-1, in the NCAA Tournament First Round Thursday night on Virtue Field. The loss snaps a seven-match win streak and ends the Broncs' season at 12-4-4. Vermont (12-5-2) moves on to face UCF in the second round Sunday.
Vermont jumped on the Broncs with two quick goals in the 24th and 29th minutes. Yaniv Bazini collected a long Jake Ashford pass over the top of the Broncs' defense from the Catamount's defensive third into the 18-yard box, turned and fired inside the right post for the 1-0 lead. Less than five minutes later, America East Rookie of the Year Nick Lockermann lined up what looked to be service into the box, but instead bent directly into the net past Broncs goalkeeper Adam Salama (Ramle, Israel/Orthodox [Ottawa Univ.]) for the two-goal advantage.
Rider cut the deficit in half with just less than 10 minutes remaining on Diene's header off Alibou's cross at 80:07. But the Catamounts were awarded a PK in the 87th minute that Bazini converted to put the game away.
Quotes & Notes
"The boys battled. I thought we had a better second half than the start of the game and found a goal to get back in it late. Maybe we could've made something happen in the final minutes. Unfortunately we gave up a PK, but at the end of the day, I'm so proud of our guys to come here and battle. Vermont's a very good team. Well-coached and I wish them the best going forward. It'll hurt today, but we have a lot to be happy and proud about going forward.
(On
Babacar Diene) "I told him after the game he's had a fantastic season. We're not in the position we are as MAAC Champions and an overall record of 12-4-4 if it's not for Babacar and his goals. He was an impact difference maker. Everybody in the country is looking for a goal scorer and thankfully we have Baye, who's done big things for us all year." –
Rider Head Coach Chad Duernberger
- Rider and Vermont were meeting for the second time in the two programs' histories, with Vermont now winning in the 2017 and 2023 NCAA First Rounds.
- Through the regular season, Rider had the third-largest improvement in wins from 2022 (3) to 2023 (12) and fourth-largest improvement in winning percentage (.353 to .737, improvement of .384) in NCAA Division I this season. Bryant's improvement of 13 wins and an increase of .645 in winning percentage led the nation entering play today.
- The Broncs entered the tournament one of the hottest teams in the nation. Only SIUE's nine-game winning streak and Western Michigan's eight-game streak ranked longer than Rider's seven-game winning streak entering tournament play.
- Rider was making its sixth NCAA Tournament appearance all time, with all six appearances coming since 1997. The Broncs have never won a tournament game.
- Salama made four saves in defeat for the Broncs.
- Rider used just two substitutes in the match, with
Luke Kirilenko (McKinney, TX/Impington International College [Virginia]) playing 15 minutes and
Justin Ruffino (Sewell, NJ/Pitman) entering for 10 minutes.
- Salama,
Jack McGeechan (Allendale, NJ/Northern Highlands Regional),
Martin Chladek (Prague, Czech Republic/Gymnazium Voderadska [Montevallo]),
Saad Chaouki (Montreal, Quebec/Antoine de Saint Exupery), Diene, Alibou,
David Ogbonna (Silver Spring, MD/Blake [Villanova]),
Sebastian Rojek (Wayne, NJ/Wayne Hills [Stony Brook]) and
Ethan Shaw (Surf City, NJ/Northern Burlington [St. John's]) played all 90 minutes.
Broncs By The Numbers
- Diene finishes the season with a team-high 13 goals and 29 points. The 13 goals and 29 points eclipsed Alibou's 25 points from 2021 (10 goals, 5 assists) for most by a Bronc since Craig Wicken had 45 points in 1998 (18 goals, 9 assists).
- Alibou's assist was his sixth of the season, pushing him into a tie with Chaouki for the team lead.
- The Catamounts took a 17-11 edge in shots, including a 7-3 edge in shots on goal.
- Vermont took four corner kicks to the Broncs' three.
- Vermont was shown three yellow cards to the Broncs' two cautions.
