In their second consecutive double-overtime game, Marist escaped with a 3-2 victory over Niagara University with a golden-goal penalty from Graduate defender Huib Achterkamp.
The Red Foxes built a two-goal lead in the first half, watched it disappear, held on for dear life, and righted the ship in the second overtime. The victory keeps them in first place in the MAAC.
“The first thing to go when you’re tired is the mental aspect, but it is a good team win.” said Marist coach Matt Viggiano.
Junior Midfielder Henrique Cruz, known for his eye for a long-range shot, opened the scoring in the 14th minute with a 30-yard volley that thundered into the top-left corner. Cruz scored his first career goal in nearly identical fashion in Marist’s 1-1 draw against Bryant.
Seemingly playing in a more direct style today, Copetti got on the end of a long ball and attempted to find Richard Morel with a low cross, but the freshman striker was just a yard behind.
In the 31st minute, Copetti would get on the scoresheet with an acrobatic finish off a cross from Junior left-winger Joe Mac, and made it 2-0 Marist.
In a drab affair so far, the only test that Senior goalkeeper Sam Ilin faced was claiming crosses out of the air from set-pieces, as the visitors had no shots on target and three in total in the first half.
Marist themselves had nine shots in total with three on target and possessed the ball 55 percent of the time.
The first shot of the second half would come in the 53rd minute, with graduate forward Kyle Galloway firing his free-kick narrowly over the bar.
Niagara finally had their first shot on target of the game, a free kick from Herman Aalberg was shot right at Sam Ilin, who comfortably held onto the ball.
The Purple Eagles got one back in the 65th minute with a close-range finish from German-born Jelldrick Dallmann, the first goal Marist had conceded in just under 400 minutes.
Galloway nearly matched Cruz’s wonder goal with one of his own, his half-volley found the top corner like Cruz’s did, but the goal was ruled out of offside before the shot.
With the game picking up intensity, Niagara was awarded a penalty with seven minutes to go after Justin Scharf brought down his man in the box.
Dallmann subsequently converted the penalty into the bottom right corner and tied the game up 2-2.
With the momentum in Niagara’s favor, neither side could end the match in regulation, and the match would go to overtime.
With three minutes left in the first overtime, Galloway came up with the defensive heroics, clearing the ball off the line after a header came towards goal off a Niagara corner.
Graduate striker Justin Jaime would get the last shot of the first overtime, but his fizzing shot went clear of the crossbar.
Two minutes into double overtime, Richard Morel was brought down in the box and gave Marist the chance to win on a golden-goal penalty kick.
Graduate defender Huib Achterkamp was the man sent forward to take the spot-kick and calmly slotted it home to get the victory for Marist 3-2.
“I had a feeling to go to my right and that worked out today. It depends on the situation, sometimes you scout the goalie before the game and look for any clues.” Achterkamp said. The defender is now seven-for-seven in his college career at penalty kicks.
After a quiet first half, the action and shot total picked up over the rest of the game. Marist would have 17 shots in total with six on target, while Niagara had 12 in total and five on target.
Coach Matt Viggiano commented on letting the lead collapse in regular time “The worst score to be winning by is 2-0, mentally it’s a tough place to be. I was worried about it at half-time and then we just made two silly mistakes. We just can’t let teams hang around like that”
For their last game of the regular season, Marist will travel to Connecticut to play Fairfield on Wednesday, November 3rd at 7 p.m.
Edited by Jonathan Kinane
Photo from Marist Athletics