Broncs hit bump against NJIT, lose late to Saint Joseph’s

CORRECTION: In a Sept. 10 issue, regarding a Rider men’s soccer game, George Washington University’s team name was wrong. The correct name is ‘Revolutionaries.’ The Rider News regrets this error.

By Benjamin Shinault

On  Sept. 6, Rider played some late afternoon soccer against the New Jersey Institute of Technology and was faced with some adversity, losing 1-0. The Broncs then took a trip for a match under-the-lights in Philadelphia against Saint Joseph’s University on Sept. 9, but would crumble late and lose 2-1. 

A case of bad luck

Everything was going the Broncs’ way when they took on the George Washington Revolutionaries on Sept. 1 and shut them out 3-0 to get their first win of the season. Though, it seems as if Rider hit a wall taking on the NJIT Highlanders on Sept. 6 as they were shutout for the second time this season, 1-0.

The match kicked off at 6 p.m. and with just under nine minutes into the first half, NJIT slipped one past 

Rider’s freshman goalkeeper Yoav Arikha. Head Coach Chad Duernberger described the goal as ‘unlucky’, as it was deflected off the back of Bronc and into the net.

By the end of the first half, NJIT got off 11 shots on Rider’s defense, the second most shots allowed in a half this season.

Coming out of the half, Rider’s defensive approach changed and it proved to be fruitful as the Broncs only allowed one shot from the Highlanders.

“We changed a few things at halftime and we started playing the way that I think this team is capable of doing,” Duernberger said.

The bad luck continued to pour over the Broncs in the matchup as the Broncs hit the crossbar many times but the ball could not quite deflect into the net.

“We hit the crossbar in the second half and I think we have hit the post seven times this year,” Duernberger continued. “In a normal season, you may hit it once or twice or not at all so we’ve been unlucky at times.”

As Duernberger said, Rider had no difficulty in creating shots as the Broncs got six shots off in the first half and five in the second, but none of them landed, resulting in another loss on the road. 

Late match slippage

Under the lights in Philadelphia against the Saint Joseph’s Hawks on Sept. 9, the Broncs had some late-game breakdowns and would lose their third straight match on the road. 

The match started out slow for both teams as their wasn’t a shot sent off by either team until nearly the eighth minute of the match when a Hawk sailed one past the net.

Saint Joseph’s kept its foot on the gas pedal against the Broncs as they got off another shot but Broncs Graduate student goalkeeper Marius Helias was able to save the Broncs an early deficit. 

Both clubs played very physical the whole match as there were 42 fouls in total and five yellow cards given out. 

In the 30th minute, the Saint Joseph’s pressure became too much for the Broncs as they scored the matches first goal. The Broncs made two majestic deflections to defend the possible goal but it seemed inevitable for the Hawks to break the tie.

The first half came and went and the Broncs found themselves trailing at half again. Similar to previous matches this season, the Broncs came out stronger and knotted the match up within the first 10 minutes of the second half off the cleat of junior forward Gio Polizzi.

With the match tied at one a piece and with time dwindling, the Hawks swarmed the 18-yard box and would get one past Helias and scored with under three minutes to go, giving Rider another road loss.

The Broncs hope to right their wrongs as they now are tasked with taking on Georgetown on Sept. 13 at 7 p.m.