Marist Men’s Soccer suffered a 3-0 beating to Cornell, their third straight loss in their four-game road trip to open the season.
The Red Foxes (0-3) traveled north to take on Cornell (1-0) in the Big Red’s season opener on a blustering afternoon, hoping to regain momentum after a disastrous road trip in Milwaukee. The Big Red featured three different goal scorers in their winning effort, showcasing an overpowering offensive attack.
Cornell wasted no time in applying pressure on the Red Foxes’ backline. In the 2nd minute, sophomore forward Alex Harris rifled a shot that was tipped off of the bar by graduate student Jamie Lowell in a diving effort.
Freshman defender Aidan Martin took the corner kick that followed, which was headed out by senior midfielder Andrea Nguionza into the reach of sophomore midfielder Connor Miller. Miller passed it to junior defender Andrew Johnson, who awkwardly chipped in a high-arcing goal to the top left to put Cornell up 1-0 in just the third minute.
Cornell almost struck again in the fifth minute, but senior forward Alioune Ka misfired what was a very promising half-chance.
The Big Red attack continued to overwhelm the Red Foxes’ defense. Miller delivered a beautiful lead pass to catch Harris in stride, who delivered a strike to the bottom left corner of the net in a 1-on-1 with Lowell, extending the Cornell lead to two in the 15th minute.
Disaster continued for Marist in the 26th minute. A Lowell goal kick was headed forward at midfield by Miller right into the reach of Ka, who proceeded to physically overpower Nguionza with size and speed into the box, launching a bullet into the lower left corner to give Cornell a 3-0 lead in less than thirty minutes.
In the 39th minute, Lowell made a diving save effort off of a rocket from Miller to prevent another blow before the half.
At the half Marist did not tally a single shot compared to Cornell’s nine, losing in all major offensive categories, continuing their offensive struggles early in the season.
Momentum began to shift in the 50th minute. Sophomore midfielder Adam Rustami and Johnson collided and went down simultaneously on what appeared to be a fifty-fifty ball, but the referee handed Johnson a decisive red card, leaving Cornell with only 10 men for the remaining forty minutes.
To respond to this hole, Cornell Coach John Smith subbed off a midfielder in exchange for a defender to keep the four-back formation, maintaining defensive shape with their three-goal lead.
In the 54th minute, Rustami shot the ball from outside the box which was deflected off of a Cornell defender, barely missing the bottom right part of the goal.
Off of the corner kick that ensued, a close-range blast from freshman defender Evan Marquez zinged off of the top bar straight down in what the Marist players in the box believed to be a goal; however, there was no signal from the referee as Marist players all raised their hands in disbelief.
Despite being down a man for almost the entire second half, Cornell still managed to have a good dose of offensive firepower, putting up six shots.
The Red Foxes’ offense looked stronger in the second half, tallying 10 shots and getting three corner kicks, numbers that surpassed their first-half stats. In the end, they still failed to finish on their scoring opportunities close in the box.
Marist has been outscored 13-1 in their first three games of the season. Their road trip comes to an end on Thursday, Sep. 5 in West Point, NY with a match against Army before seeing their home opener on Sep. 9th.
Edited by Marley Pope
Photo by Jaylen Rizzo
Graphic by Ben Monrad
For more coverage of Marist athletics, follow @cfmarist on Instagram, X and TikTok, and sign up to receive daily alerts here.