Men ready for MAACs; women ousted

By Eric Malave

The men’s soccer team looks ready for the MAAC Championships after winning two straight games to close out the season.

On Nov. 2, Rider (7-9-2, 2-5-2 MAAC) defeated Niagara (5-9-2, 3-4-1 MAAC) 2-0.

Junior A.J. Parillo scored the first goal for Rider in the middle of the first half, his third goal of the season. Junior Anthony Gilbert, who cross-passed the ball to Parillo, allowed him to score the goal.

Sophomore Nico Tramontana scored his fifth goal of the year with 20 minutes left to put the game out of reach. Gilbert picked up his second assist of the game and fifth of the year.

Rider outshot Niagara 19-14. This was its first win since Sept. 29 when they beat LaSalle 4-1.

The team closed out the regular season on a positive note, picking up their second straight conference win on Senior Day over Canisius (6-11, 5-4 MAAC) 3-1.

Freshman Jim Bradley put the Broncs on the board just over two minutes into the game.

Canisius answered back two minutes later to tie the score. However, they would not score again.

Bradley scored his second goal of the game nine minutes into the second half. The assist came from freshman Juan Arana. Bradley was named MAAC Rookie of the Week for the second time this season. He also received this award in early September.

The final goal that assured Rider the win was shot by senior defender Mark Ockenhouse. This was his first goal of the season. Rider outshot Canisius 15-12.

The team’s next stop will be the MAAC Championship, which will be held at the Disney Wide World of Sports complex in Orlando, Fla.

The games will be held on Nov. 14-17. The pairings of the tournament were released this past Monday by the MAAC offices.

Rider will be the No. 9 seed and take on No. 8 seeded Siena.

The women’s team did not share the same success as the men.

Last Friday, the team traveled to face off against Iona (5-13-1, 3-4-1 MAAC). In the end, the Broncs (5-11-3, 1-8 MAAC) lost 2-0.

“It certainly wasn’t our best effort by any means,” said junior Erin Mahar. “What plagued our MAAC play was the fact that during games, we worked hard to get the ball just to give it away a few seconds later. We just couldn’t seem to find each other.”

Iona took the lead 21 minutes into the game. They would add another goal with 15 minutes left to play to seal the deal.

Rider was out-shot by Iona 9-7 in the first half and 6-2 in the second half.

On Nov. 4, the team traveled to play their last season game against Fairfield. The Stags beat the Broncs 5-1.

“I don’t think the score of the Fairfield game was indicative of how well our team played at all,” said Mahar. “We played with more intensity and urgency than we had in past weekends.”

Fairfield (11-6-3, 6-1-2 MAAC) scored three times in a span of 23 minutes.

Freshman Kara Perkoski scored the only goal for the Broncs. She took a pass from senior Amy Vinarsky and scored with 20 minutes left to play.

“It wasn’t just the last game of the season for me, but the last game of my career,” said Vinarsky. “I just wanted to run until I couldn’t run anymore and play as hard as I could so I know that I would be able to look back with the feeling I left it all on the field.”

Though the season is over, the Broncs are optimistic about next year.

“Our team has great chemistry and we always train well in practice, but we have to learn to translate it onto the game field,” said Mahar.