LAWRENCEVILLE, N.J.- Callum Willmott and Fabrizio Chiari found the back of the net in the Niagara Purple Eagles' 5-2 loss to the Rider Broncs on Wednesday afternoon.

'The team battled and scored two quality goals," head coach Eric Barnes said. "Unfortunately it wasn't enough to make up for mistakes that we made that cost us goals."
 
Niagara (4-8-2; 1-3-1 MAAC) was first on the board thanks to a strike from Willmott in the 23^rd minute. The senior took a low cross and did not miss with NU's third shot on goal of the day. The tally is Willmott's third of the season, which ties his total from last year, and the 19^th goal of his career.
 
The lead was short lived, however, as Rider (5-5-2; 2-3-0 MAAC) came back to tie the match at 1-1 just two minutes later after a low drive went post-and-in on freshman keeper Steve Casey. The score would remain tied as the game went into half with NU holding the shot advantage 5-4.  
 
A couple of unfortunate fouls in the second half put the Purple Eagles into a 3-1 hole. NU got called for a foul inside the 18-yard box to give the Broncs a penalty kick three minutes into the half, which was put in the net to give the hosts the 2-1 lead in the 48^th minute. Rider extended its lead to 3-1 when it awarded a direct kick from 25 yards out in the 64^th minute. 
 
The Broncs added another goal in the 73^rd minute to take a 4-1 lead before Chiari tallied his first goal as a Purple Eagle. The midfielder scored on a laser of a strike from 25 yards out to cut the deficit in half in the 88^th minute. Rider added one more goal after the ball took a lucky bounce off of a Casey save and came away with the 5-2 win.

"Both teams created several quality scoring chances," said Barnes. "Give credit to Rider. They finished theirs and we did not."
 
Casey finished the game with six saves, five of which came in the second half. The Broncs held the shot advantage by one, with a 15-14 total. Six Purple Eagles put a shot on net with Andrew Ferguson leading the way with five total shots.
 
The Purple Eagles are back on the pitch when they return home this Saturday, October 18 to host the Iona Gaels at 2:00 p.m.