Behind two first half goals by senior forward Machel Baker, the Quinnipiac men’s soccer team downed Rider 2-1 at the QU Soccer Field on Saturday afternoon.

With the win, the Bobcats move to 2-0-1 in Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference play this season.

“We’ve been plugging away towards this all year,” Quinnipiac head coach Eric Da Costa said. “I feel like I sound like a broken record now, but we set our schedule up knowing that it would be difficult, and it doesn’t get any easier from here on out. Having a difficult schedule definitely prepared us for today.”

Quinnipiac took 1-0 lead 11:48 into the game off a header by Baker. James Doig was credited with the assist.

“It was a corner, I was in the box trying to get free,” Baker said of his first goal. “Luckily I got free and got a head on it.”

Baker followed up his first goal by finding the back of the net again at 26:33, making it 2-0 Quinnipiac.

“We were doing crosses all week, coach told me to get to the near post,” Baker said. “I got the ball there and put it away.”

With the two goals on Saturday, Baker now has a total of 10 points on the season. That number matches his 2013 season total.

Da Costa was enthused by Baker’s play so far this season.

“We’ve been creating some great chances, and we knew it was only a matter of time until something positive started happening for us,” Da Costa said. “Machel’s been working hard for us, and he put those two goals away nicely.”

Quinnipiac senior goalkeeper Borja Angoitia made five saves on the day, before being given a red card and being ejected in the second half of play.

Angoitia was replaced by Brian Westerman in net, who will start the next game for Quinnipiac.

“Bryan stepped in today and did his job,” Da Costa said. “That’s why we’re two players deep at every position.”

With the win, Quinnipiac improves to 5-4-2 on the season. The Bobcats are back in action on Wednesday, when they’ll travel to Marist.