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Off Field Check In: Rhinos Survive a Break-In and Tinker with Roster

The Rhinos have recently shown up on the police report and a Scottish roster bio blurb.

By Brendan Doherty
Rochester Rhinos

Late Tuesday night a Rochester-based Twitter account that tweets traffic from a local police scanner broke news about some criminal mischief at Sahlen's Stadium. The desirability and relative safety of the neighborhood around the Rhinos' home has been criticized since the site was announced before construction began.

Rochester's paper of record, the Democrat & Chronicle followed up on the story on Wednesday.

They were charged with grand larceny, burglary, and criminal mischief. Their names are not being released due to their juvenile status.

"It was kids in the stadium, doing what kids do," said Pat Ercoli, president and chief operating officer of Sahlen's Stadium. "It was a younger group of kids. Essentially we got a call that they were in the stadium. And by the time that police got there, they had broken into the suites.

"A person in the neighborhood called," Ercoli said. "They took two TVs, but we recovered them. From my perspective, you would hope that they would learn a lesson, because they were caught."

Sean Murdoch was fairly highly touted as a USL signing when he joined Rochester in preseason. I had the following to say about him before he was announced:

Murdoch is a 28-year-old goalkeeper from Edinburgh, Scotland. Murdoch made an appearance in the UEFA Cup, the fore-bearer of the Europa League, for Dunfermline Athletic but really shone with fellow Scottish club Hamilton Academical and English side Accrington Stanley. After acting as back-up at Edinburgh mainstay Hibernian for two seasons, he had originally trained as a youth at fierce rivals Hearts, Murdoch has been out of contract since the summer of 2014. While he was training with New York City FCthis past December Murdoch proposed to his girlfriend with the help of a flash mob in Times Square.

Murdoch performed well in his only league appearance for the Rhinos, a 1-0 win on the road at Saint Louis. The veteran Scottish goalkeeper left the team in July to return to his native country. He trialed with former club Dunfermline Athletic before signing with the Pars on July 17.

"Sean returned to Scotland in October 2012 as back up for Ben Williams at Hibs and more recently had a spell in the USL with Rochester Rhinos. " While his time with Rochester was summed up in 11 words from a 300 word biography by Dunfermline, I can't muster too many more on the subject.

Good luck in the Scottish League One (the third division), Sean.

While the team has failed to sign a third goalkeeper for over a month, the Rhinos did move to add another midfielder after Christian Silva and Revolution loanee Tyler Rudy went down with season-ending injuries.

Nate Bourdeau signed his contract with Rochester on Tuesday but was not cleared by USL and US Soccer until Friday afternoon. He was registered in time for Sunday's game against Saint Louis FC but is seen as a depth option in central midfield for the Rhinos. The USL roster rule introduced after the controversy caused by Dom Dwyer's playoff inclusion in 2012, which requires players to make five appearances to be eligible for the postseason, only applies to loan players. Bourdeau will be able to play for Rochester in the playoffs regardless of how many league games he plays in before then.

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