Riders Tame the Lynx
Long Island wins their second game in a row
One thing was for certain before the this week; Things had to change!
Before this week Long Island was a game under .500. The Rough Riders had to change and turn their season around if they had any hopes of making the playoffs. They were in 4th place in the Northeast. They had to make some noise, and that is what they did!
On Thursday July 27th, the Riders continued to gain ground on the Toronto and the Rhinos.
Heading into the game, Toronto held a 3 point advantage for sole possession of 2nd place, and they left in 3rd place trailing Long Island by 1 point.
The Rough Riders also change the look of their roster, as they released Jeff Zaun and granted Rich Mattson his unconditional release. To fill the two roster spots, the Riders signed former Riders Fernando Fernandez and Brendan Sullivan.
This win could set off what could turn into a wild finish in the division. Rochester and Toronto held commanding leads over Long Island and Montréal. That is all about to change as well!
Good teams usually enjoy their share of luck during the season. The Rough Riders received some much needed luck as just two minutes into the game, they took a 1-0 lead.
Gerry Lucey set up to take a corner, as it sailed through the box, Theo Zagar pushed the ball toward the back post. At first, the ball landed, harmlessly at the feet of Milan Kojic, his defender, who proceeded to clear the ball into the net.
The game was uptempo with the teams playing offensively with second place in the division on the line. Unfortunately, Toronto was never able to recover after their own goal.
The Lynx did manage to score before the half. In the 29th minute, Edson Buddle let Toronto's Lydon Hooper slip into the box where Franciso Dos-Santos found him. Hooper placed the ball in the back of the net beating a diving Paul Grafer to tie the game at 1-1.
For the first time this season, Long Island stepped up to the challenge of a big game. The Riders applied more pressure in the second half, as they created opportunity after opportunity.
In the 63rd minute, Irasto Knight scored the winning goal, his third goal in two games. Knight followed the play up-field, and collected a pass that was deflected by the Lynx defense to seal the win. Grafer helped ensure the win by making nine saves in the net.
When asked about the changes to the team help spark the win, Head Coach Paul Riley replied, "Yea, the team started to take liberties, and I had to throw the gauntlet down. The players forced the issue. The changes helped a lot, Steve(Cadet) stepped right in and was solid."
"We haven't peaked yet, there are still a lot of games left. Toronto plays Rochester tomorrow, somebody has to lose more points. There are a lot of games left between division teams," stated Riley. Watch out Rhinos, here come the Riders!
