Rider’s Pastuna rewarded for his loyalty
One of the few question marks a young Rider men’s soccer team did not have this year, was in goal.
That’s because David Pastuna took a major risk last year, which has paid off in the Broncs getting his services for one more collegiate season.
Pastuna’s story has been well documented by coach Charlie Inverso to anyone who will listen. After starting his first two seasons and helping Rider go from bad to respectable, the Robbinsville High graduate lost his job to red hot Ryan Baird midway through his junior year and watched as the Broncs won the MAAC tournament and reached the NCAAs.
The same thing happened last year, but early in the season Inverso offered Pastuna the opportunity to redshirt so he could have this season after Baird graduated. There was one stipulation, however. If Baird went down, Pastuna had to give up his redshirt to go in as a replacement, even if it happened in the MAAC championship game.
Showing a team-first loyalty not seen too often, Pastuna agreed to those terms. He never pouted, worked hard with Baird — whom he called his best friend — and stayed ready just in case.
Fortunately, the call never came and Pastuna has come back a better goalie than ever before.
“I have so much confidence now,” he said. “Knowing that last year I didn’t play; and that I hadn’t been playing to best of my ability, I still came into practice and gave 100 percent. I learned things from Ryan and I came back this year in great condition and very confident.”
The result has been a 5-2 start for Rider entering Wednesday’s MAAC opener with Monmouth. The Broncs have won five of six and defeated No. 21 ranked Fairleigh Dickinson Tuesday, and Pastuna has been big. The fifth-year senior has played every minute in goal, sporting a 1.24 goals against average with 22 saves.
He is just what the Broncs need — someone to keep them in games as a young group tries to come together. Rider graduated 13 last year, and most of its nucleus.
“Like any team, you have to get there and it takes times,” Pastuna said. “We’ve brought in 15 new players; the team chemistry is not exactly where it used to be. Most of us came in together (five years ago), and now they’re gone, but that’s not to say we’re not as good a team as last year, or even better.
“What we need is a few more games to work out the kinks, get us used to how to play together. It’s hard, we’ve got eight new starters and it’s their first year of collegiate soccer. There’s always going to be some mistakes getting used to each other but we’re getting there. I definitely, 100 percent feel we will be in the (MAAC) championship and can be a championship team.”
Inverso agrees with his keeper about the growing pains despite the strong start. “It’s going to be a big task for us to get back (to NCAAs),” the coach said. “We lost two guys who played 60 games next to each other in the midfield over four years. You can’t replace that kind of experience right away, it’s going to take some maturing. There’s still a lot of rough patches we’re going through. But Dave is a good enough goalie that if we do come together, he can be a guy that can take us far.”
FRUSTRATION RISES
For the most part, Dan Donigan has taken a positive outlook during last year’s one-win season and this year’s 1-6-1 start.
But the coach’s frustration began to show after a 2-1 overtime loss to Canisius in a winnable game against a MAAC foe Tuesday.
With Rutgers missing three players due to injuries or cards, the Scarlet Knights got a penalty kick from Erik Sa in the second half to tie the game 1-1. RU continued to attack and held an 8-3 shot advantage from that point until the end of regulation. But the Golden Griffins (61) scored a golden goal with 3:28 left in OT to win their sixth straight.
“It’s incredibly frustrating,” Donigan said. “We told ourselves not to expose ourselves on the backside of the ball and that they wouldn’t hurt us unless they broke out and countered us. Everything was on our side. Guys need to make plays and make smart decisions. Having two seniors sit out tonight because of cards really hurt us because they had the ability to be a difference tonight.
“You can make runs, you can do certain things, but there are times when you’ve got to go into tackles hard, you’ve got to blow plays up and win the individual battles; times when you need to work back and recover and provide support and help so we don’t expose ourselves in the back end of things. Unfortunately it’s a learning process. It’s another lesson they need to understand. You have to be able to rally back.”
Things get no easier as Rutgers travels to No. 2 Indiana Friday.
VIKINGS LEAP TO 13
Mercer, which is 7-1-1 coming off a 2-2 tie with Monroe of the Bronx, jumped from 18th to 13th in the NJCAA Division I rankings. The Vikings Adir Versano of Israel is second in the nation with 10 assists, while Eiichi Yamaguchi of Japan is tied for seventh with 11 goals. Yamaguchi also has four assists to tie him for 10th nationally in points.