On Saturday afternoon, the Quinnipiac Bobcats men’s soccer team (5-4-2, 2-0-1 MAAC) defeated the Rider Broncs (4-5-2, 1-3-0 MAAC) 2-1. All the Bobcats needed for victory was for two of their top players to step up offensively. Despite inclement weather and tough field conditions, the Bobcats’ offensive had no problems getting going against the Broncs’ defense.
The scoring started just 13 minute in when senior forward and defending MAAC player of the week Machel Baker scored with an assist from sophomore midfielder James Doig. The goal came off of a corner kick from Doig and Baker was able to head it in to the net.
Just fifteen minutes later in the 28th minute, Doig again assisted Baker on another goal.
“Machel has been working hard for it. He worked hard for those two goals and did a good job finishing them off,” Bobcats head coach Eric Da Costa said.
Though Quinnipiac scored the only two goals of the first half, Rider seemed to be in control of the play in the first half getting several scoring chances and hitting the post twice while Quinnipiac only had a total of five shots throughout the game.
“Yeah I think we allowed a lot of possession, but we didn’t allow many dangerous goal chances. We talked about it at half time and made some good adjustments,” Da Costa said.
In the second half, what seems to be a recurring theme with this Bobcats team, the match started to get a bit physical. A total of nine cards were handed out with each team receiving a red card in the 62nd minute. Quinnipiac senior goalkeeper Borja Angoita and Rider sophomore defenseman Warren Holmes each got a red card forcing their teams to play with only ten men for the rest of the match.
“It’s of course a lot easier when the other team only has ten men on the field as well. There’s more room on the field which means our players need more energy and we were fine with allowing them [Rider] to have possession when we were up two goals and just try to create counterattacks from it,” Da Costa said.
Rider did not score until the 88th minute when sophomore forward Zach Bond scored an unassisted goal, which proved to be too little too late.
The Quinnipiac Bobcats men’s soccer team plays again on Wednesday, Oct. 15 in Poughkeepsie, New York to face the Marist Red Foxes (5-3-3, 1-1-1 MAAC).
