Rider Broncs 4 at Canisius Golden Griffins 1 (NCAA Soccer, Metro Conference) - September 26, 2026

Every year, members of Club 124 try to have a meetup at one of the new venues in the Big 4 sports. In 2019, the first event was held at Fiserv Forum, and we also had gatherings at Chase Center, SoFi Stadium, and Intuit Dome, with another cancelled due to a snowstorm that postponed an Islanders game at UBS Arena. This year, the only debutant is Highmark Stadium, home of the Buffalo Bills, and as the first two members of Club 124 are Buffalo residents, a party was essential. The group decided on the Week 3 Sunday afternoon matchup against the Chargers, well before winter sets in. The Buffalo Bulls had a football game on Saturday afternoon, while the Sabres had a preseason tilt, but neither of those interested me. The only thing that caught my eye was a Canisius soccer match, but as the early flight to Buffalo was $50 more than the later flight, I chose the latter and figured on just one game for the weekend. My buddy Sharpy decided to join and booked the same flight after coming down from Ottawa.

Then the sporting gods intervened. A couple of days prior to the trip, a forecast Nor'easter allowed us to move the flight to the earlier one at no cost. The storm didn't impact our flight and we arrived in Buffalo ahead of schedule, passing by Highmark Stadium as we approached (above). After a short walk to our hotel, we enjoyed lunch at Wingnutz before taking a rideshare over to Demske Sports Complex, home of Canisius soccer. The field is right next to the Koessler Athletic Center, where the intimidating Golden Griffin logo greets you. 

There are no tickets necessary for soccer here, so we just walked right in and sat right down. As is typical for these smaller colleges, there is a single set of bleachers along one side and nothing else. A small concession stand was by the entrance but did not have any Coke Zero.

We did receive a free t-shirt which said 'Don't Let the Griffs Get Hot!' (no chance of that) and Sharpy met with his namesake Petey Griffin, who is not related to Peter Griffin of Quahog.

The game was a Metro Conference matchup (the MAAC rebranded to the Metro back in July) with the Rider Broncs (4-2-1) visiting the 1-6 Golden Griffins. The visitors scored early when Ryan Vaubel slotted home a perfect cross, and the rest of the half was uneventful.

Early in the second stanza, Rider doubled their lead when a shot hit the crossbar and fell to an unmarked Michael Holliday, who calmly headed home. Just past the midway point, Canisius keeper Preston Harold, a Scarborough native, came out to challenge for the ball but mishandled it, with Jacobo Cruz the beneficiary as Rider made it 3-0. 

Canisius did score a beauty as Gael Arceo's corner went in directly, but Rider quickly got that back to win 4-1. As you can see by the Shots on Goal below, Rider dominated and deserved the easy victory.

During the game, there were a couple of long reviews and it took nearly 2.5 hours, ridiculous for soccer. 

Notes

The women's volleyball team had a game at 2:00 at Koessler, where I visited back in February for basketball. We wandered over at halftime and watched a few points but once again, Canisius was no match for their opponents (Fairfield in this case), as they fell 25-10 in the first set on their way to a 3-1 loss. If the game was at 3:00, we would have stayed so I could count Koessler as a volleyball venue but overlapping sports on college campuses is a problem that nobody wants to discuss.

Best,

Sean