A late penalty kick goal scored by Lehigh’s senior forward Perry Kingston delivered Marist men’s soccer’s second straight road loss as they wrapped up non-conference play on Tuesday night.
Marist (3-6, 0-1 MAAC) entered their last non-MAAC conference match after a tough loss in their conference opener, a 2-1 defeat at Fairfield. After a short turnaround from Saturday’s loss, the Red Foxes traveled to Lehigh University (4-6-1, 2-1 Patriot League) to take on the Mountain Hawks.
Marist faced an intriguing task tonight without their starting goalkeeper graduate student Jamie Lowell. Lowell had started all 8 games, but sophomore goalkeeper Dreni Idrizi got the start in net, the first of his career.
The game started off slow with only four shots registered through the first 15 minutes. However, Marist found the breakthrough in the 17th minute, after an incisive pass from freshman midfielder Caio Cavaletti found the boot of sophomore midfielder Arion Ulaj.
Ulaj’s shot deflected in front of the goal, only to be smashed into the net by senior forward Richard Morel, beating graduate student goalkeeper Blake Koski.
Morel’s goal tallied his third of the season, adding on to the two he scored in the Red Foxes’ win over no.18 Fordham earlier this season.
The lead did not hold for long, though. Six minutes later the Mountain Hawks got in behind after a pass from Kingston gave junior midfielder Beckett Wenger a 1-on-1 chance against Marist’s Idrizi.
Wenger took the chance, burying the ball into the far left corner to even up the contest at 1-1. Wenger finally found his first goal of the season in his 11th start, and Kingston recorded his third assist to go along with three goals in 11 games.
The match entered the break even at one. The second half started slow within the first 5 minutes, minus a yellow card given to freshman defender Gijs Verhuel for a foul around the Red Fox penalty area.
The subsequent free kick smashed straight into the wall. On the other end a free kick in the 51st minute from Cavaletti sailed over the bar with both teams failing to convert on set piece chances.
One of Lehigh’s most promising chances of the second half came in the 64th minute when Kingston had his free kick blocked by the wall, and his follow up attempt went wide right.
The match continued its back and forth pattern for another dozen minutes before Marist created the biggest chance to break the deadlock. With just over 12 minutes to play Morel got in behind the Mountain Hawk defense and was 1-on-1 with the goalkeeper, however his shot was saved and cleared away before another Red Fox could attack.
The defensive battle continued in Bethlehem as the clock ticked under 10 minutes to play until a long throw in from Lehigh opened up the Marist defense with 5 minutes left. An acrobatic attempt from Kingston was deflected and ended up at the feet of freshman midfielder Aiden Gonzalez. His shot deflected off the arm of a Red Fox defender and the whistle blew for a penalty in favor of Lehigh.
Kingston stepped up to take the penalty in the 86th minute, and sent Idrizi the wrong way, giving his team the lead in the final minutes.
Marist looked to respond immediately after, charging down the field and earning a corner after a shot from Ulaj was sent wide of the goal. Nothing came of the chance as the Red Foxes still chased an equalizer.
Kingston’s third goal of the season was enough for Lehigh to hold on and win 2-1. The Red Foxes will look to rebound from consecutive road defeats on Friday, Oct. 11 when Marist resumes MAAC play by hosting Canisius. Kickoff at Tenney Stadium is scheduled for 5 p.m.
Edited by Marley Pope
Graphic by Jaylen Rizzo; Photo from Stockton Photo
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Ryan, VERY nicely done! Great detail and an enjoyable read. Keep it up. A.Sue The Czar agrees; reads as if was done by a pro! Keep it going and you will soon be doing Phillies games! Lovya man!