Tuesday, Nov 13, 2018
Victory sends Broncs to the NCAA Tournament
by Rider Sports Information
The Rider University men's soccer team defeated No. 2 Quinnipiac, 1-0, Sunday afternoon for its third MAAC Championship in four years. With the win, the Broncs' (10-9-1) fifth-straight shutout, Rider advances to the NCAA Tournament for the fifth time. The Broncs will face nationally ranked No. 16 Akron in the NCAA Championship First Round, traveling to the MAC Champion Zips for a Thursday night game at 7 p.m.
The Broncs, who started out the season 1-5, entered the MAAC tournament as the fifth seed. "I've been doing this a long time – I've never seen a season like this," says Rider Head Coach Charlie Inverso.
On Sunday, Pablo DeCastro scored his team-leading eighth goal of the year and Pablo Gatinois made a career-high 10 saves. On the game-winning tally, Clement Bourret crossed from the right to find DeCastro in the box. The redshirt sophomore then shot low inside the right post to beat Bobcats' goalkeeper Jared Mazzola.
On the other end, Gatinois would not be beaten. The sophomore made seven of his 10 saves in the second half, besting his prior single-game high of seven saves (Sept. 29, 2018 at Marist).
The MAAC Championship is Rider's fifth all-time. The Broncs also won the title in 1997, 1998, 2015 and 2016.
For the first time this season, the Broncs earned a win over a MAAC foe when Elliott Otmani did not register a point. Nonetheless, Otmani was named MAAC Championship MVP for the second time in his career (2015, 2018). Otmani had a point in Rider's prior eight wins over MAAC competition, including goals in five.
"You get very few kids like him in your lifetime that you get to coach," Inverso says of Otmani. "As a player, he's clutch. And he's even a better person, if that's possible. I've got to figure he's going to go down as one of the greatest players to ever play here. I'm very happy for him."