Thursday, November 9, 2023
MAAC Championship Semifinals
#3 Rider Broncs (10-3-4, 6-2-2 MAAC) vs. #2 Siena Saints (8-8-0, 8-2-0 MAAC)
Location: Loudonville, NY – Hickey Field
Kickoff: 1 p.m.
Tickets: MAACSports.com
Live Video: ESPN+
Live Stats: SienaSaints.com

What You Need To Know
- The third-seeded Rider University men's soccer team travels to second-seeded Siena in the MAAC Championship Semifinals Thursday afternoon at 1 p.m. on ESPN+.
- Tickets are being sold by the MAAC for Thursday's match. Adult tickets are $10, while children under 12, students and seniors (65+) will be admitted for $5. Fans are encouraged to purchase their tickets prior to arrival by visiting the link above.  
- Through Tuesday's results, Rider has the fourth-largest improvement in wins from 2022 (3) to 2023 (10) and sixth-largest improvement in winning percentage (.353 to .706, improvement of .353) in NCAA Division I this season. Bryant's improvement of 11 wins and an increase of .632 in winning percentage leads the nation.
- The Broncs have now qualified for the MAAC Championships in nine of the last 10 seasons following a one-year hiatus in 2022. Rider won MAAC Championships in 1997, 1998, 2015, 2016 and 2018, while finishing as runner up in 2004, 2017 and 2021. Rider's last MAAC Championship appearance came in 2021, with the Broncs playing top-seeded Marist to a 2-2 draw as the No. 5 seed, before the Red Foxes advanced on PK's.
- Rider is 20-10-3 all-time in the MAAC Championships.
- Rider maintains a 14-12-6 lead in the all-time series with Siena. The Broncs took a 1-0 win to open league play on Sept. 16 in Lawrenceville. Luke Kirilenko checked in the 58^th minute and finished Jack McGeechan's cross for the game winner in the 64^th minute. The two teams split a pair of meetings in 2021, with each team winning on the other's home field. Last season, the Broncs and Saints played to a 2-2 tie in Loudonville.
- The Broncs are 3-1-1 all-time against Siena in the MAAC Championships. In the tie in the 2016 semifinals, Rider advanced on PK's and has advanced past the Saints in 4-of-5 playoff opportunities.
- Rider is now 20-10-3 all-time in the MAAC Championships, and has reached the semifinals 12 times, most recently in 2021, when they advanced to the finals with wins over Siena and Fairfield.
- Rider had a program-record eight different All-MAAC honorees this season, with Saad Chaouki, the MAAC Rookie of the Year, being joined on the First Team by Babacar Diene, Momo Diop and Adel Al Masude. Sebastian Rojek took Second Team, while Ethan Shaw, Jack McGeechan and Martin Chladek were selected to the Third Team. Rider had seven different honorees in 2017.  
- Chaouki became Rider's fourth MAAC Rookie of the Year, joining Bob Francis (1998), Christian Flath (2013) and Florian Valot (2014).
- The Broncs are playing some of their best soccer of the season, riding a season-long five-game winning streak. During that time, the Broncs have outscored the opposition, 11-3. Babacar Diene has scored six of the goals, assisted on two more and started the play that resulted in another, but did not receive an assist because Momo Diop was ruled to have evaded a defender.
- Two of the three goals scored by the opposition in the winning streak have come off of late penalty kicks, with the third coming 30 seconds after Salama had stopped a penalty kick on Oct. 28 at Marist.
- Diene scored a highlight-reel goal, rocketing a shot from the corner of the 18-yard box into the opposite upper 90 in the 15^th minute to put Rider up 1-0 in the MAAC Quarterfinals vs. Marist. Diop and Kirilenko would score later in the 3-1 win.
- Diene had a hat trick and added an assist in the Broncs' 4-1 win over Saint Peter's in the regular-season finale. It was the Broncs' first hat trick in more than nine years. The last Bronc to achieve the feat was Zach Bond on Oct. 22, 2014, also against Saint Peter's. The last time a Bronc had as many as seven points in a single game came exactly 21 years prior, when Sandro DeCristofaro had a hat trick and an assist at Iona on Nov. 1, 2002.
- Diene now has a team-high 11 goals and 25 points. The 25 points match Zaki Alibou (10 goals, 5 assists) for most by a Bronc since Craig Wicken had 45 points in 1998 (18 goals, 9 assists). Diene's 11 goals are most by a Bronc since Wicken's 18 goals in 1998.
- The 2023 season has seen its ebbs and flows for the Broncs. Following a season-opening setback at Seton Hall, the Broncs reeled off eight-straight games unbeaten, posting a 5-0-3 mark. Rider went winless in its next three, including losses to Manhattan and Iona, before turning it back around with five-straight wins over Niagara, Mount St. Mary's, Marist, Saint Peter's and Marist again.
- The Broncs are in their first year under Head Coach Chad Duernberger. Duernberger came to Rider following five seasons as an assistant at Dartmouth. He replaced Charlie Inverso, who retired following 12 seasons at the helm, leading the Broncs to three MAAC Championships. Just seven matches into Duernberger's first year, the Broncs eclipsed their win total from 2022.
- First-year goalkeeper Adam Salama has posted a 1.06 goals-against average and a .746 saves percentage in playing all but one match so far this season. He's made 50 saves. He earned MAAC Defensive Player of the Week three times, the latest coming on Oct. 30, after allowing just one goal in a pair of wins at Mount St. Mary's and Marist.
- Diesel Fiore earned the shutout victory in his Rider debut on Oct. 21, making two saves to maintain the clean sheet against Niagara.
- Siena is led offensively by Zach Gardner with 14 points (4 goals, 6 assists) and Junior Kone (5 goals, 1 assist). Bilal Hersi, Ben Biton and Jack Mendrysa have added two goals apiece, with Hersi adding three assists and Biton distributing two. Lee Mara and Magnus Saaby have also dished out three assists apiece. Kone, Gardner, Henrik Winkelmann and goalkeeper Bennet Glinder were named to the All-MAAC Second Team, while Hersi and Biton took Third Team honors.
- Glinder, a freshman, has started all but one match for the Saints this season, posting a 1.07 goals-against average and a .778 saves percentage with four shutouts.
- Ethan Shaw scored his third goal of the year in a 2-0 win over Fairfield on Sept. 24.
- Babacar Diene scored in a 1-1 tie at Quinnipiac on Sept. 30 for his third goal of the year to tie him with Shaw for the team lead. Diene went on to score twice in a 5-3 loss to Iona to take the team lead with five goals, extended his total to seven with goals against Mount St. Mary's and Marist and ended the regular season with a hat trick against Saint Peter's to get to double digits.
- Adel Al Masude pulled into a tie for second on the team with Shaw with his third goal of the season in a 2-2 tie at Canisius. He then took over sole possession of second with the game winner against Niagara on Oct. 21. Luke Kirilenko also scored his second goal of the season against the Griffs.
- Saad Chaouki scored his first goal as a Bronc on Sept. 24 against Fairfield. Adam Salama's punt found Diene's head in the midfield and Diene played in to Chaouki in stride for a 1-v-1 opportunity. He added his second goal of the year in the regular-season finale against Saint Peter's.
- Chaouki earned his team-leading fourth assist of the season at Canisius, playing David Ogbonna wide before Ogbonna's cross found Al Masude in front. The assist was the first of Ogbonna's collegiate career. Chaouki later pushed his assist total to five, helping set up Diene's game winner at Mount St. Mary's, and made it six with a give-and-go with Diop in the MAAC Quarterfinal win over Marist.
- For his effort in consecutive clean sheets against Penn and Siena, Adam Salama was named MAAC Defensive Player of the Week on Sept. 18. Salama made it consecutive honors on Sept. 25 following a 3-1 win over La Salle on Sept. 19 and a 2-0 win over Fairfield on Sept. 24.
- Six different Broncs figured in the scoring in Rider's 3-1 win over La Salle. Martin Chladek, Babacar Diene and Justin Ruffino scored goals off assists from Ethan Gregory, Zaki Alibou and Dylan Kotch as the Broncs battled back from down, 1-0, and a 1-1 tie at the half to earn the 3-1 win.
- Luke Kirilenko scored his first collegiate goal, the game-winner, in the 64^th minute of a 1-0 win over Siena on Sept. 16. Jack McGeechan and Momo Diop assisted on the play.
- Both of Ethan Shaw's goals in the 2-1 win at Sacred Heart came off Saad Chaouki assists. For their efforts, Shaw and Chaouki were named MAAC Offensive Player and Rookie of the Week, respectively on Sept. 11.
- Adel Al Masude scored the equalizer at NJIT.
- Diene and Sebastian Rojek also netted goals in the Broncs' 2-0 win over Saint Joseph's.
- Rider returned 2021 MAAC Offensive Player of the Year Zaki Alibou following an injury-riddled 2022 campaign that saw him play just 87 minutes in two games due to injury. In 2021, he led the Broncs with 10 goals and five assists, helping Rider to the MAAC Final.
- Al Masude led a group of four returning starters, along with Diene, Jack McGeechan and Tom Skrocki. Al Masude tied for the team lead with Lenny Cidolit at three goals and four assists last season. Diene also tied for the team lead with three goals last season, while McGeechan contributed three assists.
- The Broncs entered a period of transition in goal, with Ben Collins being the only returner to see action in net for Rider (three games off the bench in 2022) entering the season. Diesel Fiore was also on the roster last season, while Salama entered competition following a season at Ottawa University, an NAIA school in Arizona.
- Rider was picked eighth in the MAAC Preseason Coaches Poll.
- The Broncs qualified for the MAAC Championships in eight-straight seasons before missing the field in 2022. Rider won MAAC Championships in 1997, 1998, 2015, 2016 and 2018, while finishing as runner up in 2004, 2017 and 2021.