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Photo via SHUPirates[/caption]
The Seton Hall men’s soccer team lost 1-0 on Tuesday evening in Lawrenceville, N.J., to the Rider Broncos. This loss dropped the Pirates to a 2-6-1 overall record, and a 0-2-0 conference record.
The first half of the match was a tightly contested offensive battle with both the Broncos and the Pirates having six shots. The lone and decisive goal came in the 29th minute when Rider senior Fernando Pena scored off of a give-and-go play, assisted by teammates Elliot Otmani and Jose Aguinaga. The Broncos rode the midfielder’s first goal of the season to victory over the Pirates.
The Seton Hall offense made Rider goalie Ryan Baird work for his shutout, by having six more shots than the Rider offense. This was Seton Hall’s second game in a row that they won the total shots battle, but lost the game 1-0, the first coming this past Saturday against St. John’s. Francisco Alderete led the pirates with 2 shots-on-goal, with Alex Pozesky and Andres Arcila both having a shot each reach the Rider goaltender.
The Seton Hall defense was the stronger backstop of the two teams, allowing only 9 shots to the Pirate’s own 16.
A trend has occurred over the course of the Pirate’s four game road swing that likely frightens head coach Gerson Echeverry. In the first game of the stretch against Delaware, the Pirates committed six fouls. The number of fouls increased to 11 against Creighton and has remained steady at 14 against St. John’s and Rider.
The win for the Rider improves their record against teams from major conferences to 3-0 this season. Their first was against Seton Hall rival Villanova, with the second coming against former Big East conference adversary and current American Athletic Conference member Temple. That win catapulted Rider into the 22nd spot in the national polls for a week.
The Pirates will look to add to the win column when they return to the friendly confines of Owen T. Carroll Field this Saturday, to take on Marquette of the Big East. Match time is set for 7:00 p.m. against the Golden Eagles, who have not had a victory since Sept. 5, against the Big Ten’s Northwestern Wildcats.
Brendan Finnegan can be reached at brendan.finnegan@student.shu.edu or on Twitter @FinnBrend.
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