Lacrosse picks up first two MAAC wins
By Dain Smith and Rich Saile
Rider lacrosse earned its first-ever Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference win on March 27 after taking down the Manhattan Jaspers 14-11 and wasted no time getting its second with a 19-15 victory over the Marist Red Foxes on March 30.
First MAAC win
On a rainy day at Ben Cohen Field, the Broncs were searching for a good start and they got just that with junior midfielder Selena Carrington finding sophomore midfielder Katie Walsh to jump out to a 1-0 lead.
The Jaspers didn’t take that lightly, outscoring the Broncs 4-0 over the rest of the quarter to take a 4-1 lead in the first.
Going into the second quarter, the Broncs were trailing 5-2, but then the Jaspers started to slip.
Walsh hit her stride after a talk with Head Coach Evan Mager, scoring two straight goals.
Graduate student attacker Anna Devlin scored to tie up the match and then take the lead 6-5 for the first time in the game. The Jaspers were still in it, tying the game up once again before the end of the half.
Walsh went on to score another two, with Carrington adding on with a goal and giving Rider a 10-8 lead before the final quarter.
Leading 10-9 early in the fourth, Garcia scored two in a row, stretching the lead to 12-9.
The Broncs sealed the deal with junior attacker Toni Gismondi and Walsh scoring, putting the score at 14-10.
“Where we were successful was just pulling together and pushing for each other, being able to celebrate different things,” said Mager on his team’s strong offensive performance.
Back-to-back wins
On March 30, the Broncs hosted the Marist Red Foxes in the second of a back-to-back home game stretch against MAAC opponents.
Rider won the opening draw control and scored the first goal of the game from Gismondi. After a series of turnovers by both teams, the Broncs were able to score another goal off a Marist turnover to go up 2-0. The Broncs added three more goals from Walsh and graduate student attacker Kylee Garcia.
The Red Foxes started out the second quarter with a goal to cut the Broncs’ lead down to two. The Broncs quickly responded with a goal of their own in 42 seconds, forcing a turnover off Marist. Rider took advantage of a ground ball pickup from freshman midfielder Marybeth Smith, which led to another goal from Gismondi. Rider took the lead going into the locker room up 9-7 at halftime.
Coming out, the Broncs scored two more goals in a span of two minutes and 14 seconds. The Red Foxes ended the third quarter scoring the last goal as Rider took a 14-11 lead going into the fourth quarter.
The Red Foxes scored the first goal of the fourth quarter off a turnover by the Broncs as the Red Foxes cut Rider’s lead to two. The Broncs responded with two goals in 80 seconds from both Garcia and freshman midfielder Elena Bontatibus to put the Broncs back up by four points. Garcia and Bontatibus each added another goal as the Broncs went up seven points, which sealed their second straight win as Rider went on to win 19-15.
Rider will look to extend its winning streak to three games as they travel to New York to take on the Iona Gaels on April 3. The game will be broadcast on ESPN+ at 2 p.m.
