Tinton Falls, N.J. – The Rough Riders dominated all phases of the game in their USL W League match against the Cedar Stars scoring four goals in the first half and three goals in the second half for a 7-0 win at Capelli Sportsplex Thursday evening.
The Rough Riders traveled to New Jersey in second place in the Metropolitan Division, behind Morris Elite SC looking for a win against the Cedar Stars. The Rough Riders were looking for a second win in a row after beating NJ Copa 3-1 on Saturday. The Cedar Stars split their first two games of the season with a 6-2 win over NJ Copa and a 5-3 loss to Morris Elite.
The Cedar Stars defense held for the first 15 minute of the game, before Long Island forward Lia Howard scored the opening goal of the game in the 18th minute getting her fourth goal of the season, putting up the Rough Riders 1-0.
Just four minutes later, forward Micala Boex put another ball in the back of the net in the 22nd minute. Boex gets her first goal of the season extending the lead to 2-0.
Long Island forward Luciana Setteducate would also get her first goal of the season scoring in the 39th minute, 3-0.
Midfielder for the Rough Riders Kayleigh Goodrich would put another one in just before the half-time whistle, Goodrich scoring in her fourth straight game in the 45th minute sending the game to 4-0 at the half.
Goodrich would get another one just after half scoring in the 47th minute, securing her second brace of the season, making the score 5-0.
The Rough Riders would make a rash of substitutions in the 60th minute, sending in Jordana Bello, Alex Rush and Isabella Calabro replacing goal-scorer Setteducate, Kailey McCormick and Francesca Gatien.
The goal scoring continued with defender Olivia Pearse scoring her second goal of the season, her first since the opening game, making the score 6-0 in the 70th minute.
This coincided with another slate of substations for Long Island with Briana Neary, Olivia Jungkunst and Elliana Dos Santos entering, replacing goal-scorer Boex, Fiona Kilian and Mallory Anderson.
Goodrich would put the cherry on top of the performance for the Rough Riders scoring again in the 82nd minute, completing the final score 7-0. Goodrich gets her first hat trick of the season on her Metropolitan Division-leading seventh goal of the season.
The Rough Rider defense held stout giving the team and keeper Samantha Graf their first clean sheet of the season.
With the win, the Rough Riders improve to 3-1-0 on the season staying nominally in second place. The Rough Riders have nine points through four games behind Morris Elite who have 15 points through five games. The Cedar Stars find themselves nominally in fourth place with a 1-2-0 record and three points across three games.
The Rough Riders very next game is against the first-place Morris Elite in their most important match of the season. The women’s team has their first home game of the season at 3:30 PM on Sunday, June 7 at Mitchel Athletic Complex as part of a double-header with the men’s team who plays at right after at 6:30 PM
For tickets and more information on the Rough Riders, visit www.LIRoughRiders.com.