On a warm Thursday night, Marist faced off against MAAC foe Canisius in the semifinal Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) tournament game in front of a ruckus crowd of students and parents. Marist ultimately took the victory with a close score of 11-10.
“The crowd tonight was awesome. I have to give a huge shout out to all the Marist athletes who were in the stands whether is football, soccer and basketball,” said Head Coach Keegan Wilkinson. “They don’t understand what that means to this team.”
Three minutes into the action, Canisius got on the board first with a goal from senior Layne Collins. Canisius added two goals more goals from Jacob Buck and Mathieu Boissonneault to extend their lead. Marist answered with two goals of their own from Joe Tierney to cut the deficit to one just before the break.
To begin the second quarter, it was back and forth action by both teams until Marist found the net to tie the game up 3-3. Freshman JoJo Pirreca was the one able to find the equalizer. Marist took their first lead of the game off a goal from freshman Jamison Embury. Cansius later answered with a goal from No. 39 Logan Monroe. Cansius led the game 6-4 and Marist went on a two-goal run to tie the game with goals from Jake Weinman and Embury. The first half ended with a score of 8-7.
The back and forth action extended into the second half. Marist’s Pirreca notched the first goal of the half to tie the game at 8. Marist took control of the game as the third quarter went along. The Marist defense flexed their strength and the offense answered the bell with goals from junior Joe Tierney.
“Our offense mindset throughout the game was to stay patient and read what they were play on defense and I thought we did a good job putting up 11 goals,” Tierney said.
In the fourth quarter, Canisius tried to stage a comeback. Marist answered seconds after a Canisius goal to extend the lead back to two with a goal from freshman James Lyons. Canisius found just one more to try and steal the game with a goal from Buck. The Marist defense continued to shut down the Canisius offense in the fourth quarter, securing the victory for the Red Foxes.
Marist will have a short turn around to prepare for the championship game for the first time since 2015. They will play for the MAAC Championship against Quinnipiac at Tenney Stadium on Saturday at 10 a.m. on ESPNU.
Edited by Dan Statile & Meaghan Roche
Header photo by Shannon Tierney