“Frustration” was the word of the night for Wednesday’s men’s soccer loss to the University at Albany, as it was prevalent both on and off the field.
The final score of 2-1 did not tell the whole story of the vast amount opportunities that Marist missed throughout this game. Emphasis was put on the word “frustration”, as Marist had possession for a majority of the first half but had nothing to show for it besides a one goal deficit. In the half, Marist had seven shots, three of which on goal, as well as four corners.
Too much physicality also played as a major downfall for the Red Foxes, as they tied their season-high of three yellow cards. In the 29th minute, sophomore Christian Curti received the game’s first yellow card; then just five minutes later, junior Allen Gavilanes received one as well. The third of which came in the 74th minute from captain Michael Lorello. In total, Marist accumulated a total of seven fouls.
Marist seemed to have something knocking on the door in the second half, as the team increased their stats with ten shots, four on goal, and seven corners, but ultimately results would deem similar to that of the first’s. Nothing would come out of anything until the 89th minute where Jacob Schulman sent a strike over the keeper’s head to cut the goal deficit to one. In the end however, it was too little, too late.
In the post game interview, Marist head coach Matt Viggiano was very clear when asked how the game went over. “Frustrated, obviously. Frustrated for the guys. Frustrated because I don’t think we’re taking the lessons that we’ve learned and implementing them in our games.”
Coach Viggiano went onto to credit Albany for the way they played and said he wants Marist to play with the same maturity that Albany did throughout the whole game. “There’s not a full 100% buy in to what we’re trying to do here,” Viggiano said. “That’s frustrating to me because there’s so much talent in the room and they have so much ability but they’re not yet a group with each other.”
Marist will look to bounce back on Saturday, as they will head over to Durham to take on the New Hampshire Wildcats (4-0-2). Game time is scheduled at noon.
Edited by David Bieber