Marist women’s soccer (3-9-3, 3-5-2 MAAC Conference) conceded three first half goals to Fairfield (13-2-1, 8-1-1 MAAC), dropping their fifth game in MAAC play and sitting in ninth place with two games remaining.
The Stags made an impact early, with their goals coming from junior forward Maddy Theriault, junior forward Alex Darcy and graduate student midfielder Caroline Kelly. They led in shots 18-2 and notched 13 corner kicks to the Red Foxes’ one.
Marist entered the game coming off a match against Iona where they settled for a 1-1 tie. Freshman midfielder Sophia Dorsey scored the Red Fox goal in the contest at the 37th minute. Marist would hold onto that lead for most of the match until senior defender Myla Rodrigues put one away at the 75th minute, tying the game.
Fairfield opened up the match spending a majority of the first 10 minutes on the Marist half of the field, earning three corner kicks in the process. The Red Foxes held firm on those moments, with junior goalkeeper Maddy Catalanotti punching out a pair of corner kicks, preventing any shots for the time being.
Marist got their first chance at the 15th minute after junior forward Miya Reid drew a foul against Fairfield just outside the 18 for what basically served as a short distance corner kick. The Stags spoiled that opportunity and quickly cleared it, with the Red Foxes failing to find a great deal of better opportunities throughout the rest of the game.
The Stags early pressure eventually broke through at the 19th minute, with Theriault powering a low shot under the diving try by Catalanotti to give Fairfield an early 1-0 advantage. Theriault entered the match as the leading scorer for the Stags, notching her ninth goal of the season tonight.
“She’s a great soccer player,” said Marist head coach Nicole Pacapelli. “She’s athletic, she’s good on the ball and she’s a finisher. She provided a lot of problems and rotated through a lot of different places in the front line.”
Fairfield cashed in again at the 31st minute, as freshman forward Ashlyn Walsh sent a cross intended for sophomore midfielder Dana Nadda. Marist initially deflected and blocked the chance for the Stags, but the ball trickled in front of the net, with Darcy putting it away to extend the Stags lead 2-0.
The Stags added to their goal tally on one of their seven corner kicks of the first half in the 37th minute. The Red Foxes initially appeared to clear the corner, but a couple of headers from Darcy and sophomore forward Ella Pisani sent the ball back into the box. With the Marist defense already pushed up, having thought they ended the opportunity, Kelly found the ball in the 18 and put a shot past Catalanotti to give Fairfield their third goal of the half.
That ended an authoritative first 45 minutes for the Stags as they led the shot category 11-0, putting four of those shots on net.
“They’re hands down the best team in the MAAC,” said Pacapelli, “Very dangerous and very attack-oriented.”
Marist looked to respond in the second half, as they limited Fairfield’s opportunities on offense by controlling the ball better and found a few chances of their own. They were awarded a corner kick in the 66th minute that graduate student Keegan Mayer sent into the middle of the box, but the Foxes could not capitalize, keeping the game 3-0.
“We just talked about coming back into the game one step at a time,” said Pacapelli, “I told them the goal isn’t necessarily to come back, score four goals and win the game because that’s a bit overwhelming to put that kind of pressure on them. So it was just about winning the half, keeping them to zero goals and going from there.”
In the 78th minute, graduate student midfielder/forward Maille McDermott was hit with a yellow card after attempting to make a tackle next to the sidelines. The yellow card is her fifth of the season, resulting in a one-game suspension, meaning she will be unavailable in a pivotal match against Rider on Sunday.
“It’s definitely a tough one,” said Pacapelli, “It’s unfortunate, but it is what it is. It’s just something we have to deal with and manage and we’ll figure it out.”
The home match on Sunday against Rider will occur at 1 p.m., with the Red Foxes sitting at 11 points and outside of the MAAC playoff window for now.
Edited by Jaylen Rizo
Photo by Ricky Torres
Graphic by Jaylen Rizzo
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