The Marist Red Foxes dominated on offense with a two-goal win over New Haven, outshooting the Chargers 23-1. Freshman forward Ella Bryan tallied her first career points in Marist’s 3-1 victory, as her two goals led the Red Foxes to their first win in 2025.
Prior to the Chargers’ matchup against the Red Foxes on Tuesday night, the two teams had never met before, as New Haven moved all of their athletic programs up to Division I this past July.
The only previous women’s soccer ties between Marist and New Haven lie within head coach Nicole Pacapelli Ciano, who both coached and played for the Chargers during her career.
As a player, Pacapelli Ciano wore the captain’s band for two years and was named an All-Northeast-10 selection and NEWISA All-New England. After graduating from New Haven in 2014, Pacapelli Ciano began her coaching career with the Chargers, being named lead assistant coach for the following season.
“Their coach coached me. She [Laura Duncan] was in my wedding; she is one of my best friends, so it is always a weird matchup,” said Pacapelli Ciano. “I have to say I was probably more nervous for this game than I was for a lot of other games because of that.”
The final non-conference game of the season started differently than others, with five new starters for the Red Foxes. Most notably, captains, sophomore forward Gabby Tirado and senior goalkeeper Maddy Catalanotti stood on the sidelines. Catalonotti appeared in 16 games for the Red Foxes last season, starting in 15, while Tirado started in 16 of the Red Foxes’ 17 games, finishing the season as the team’s leader in shot attempts and assists.
“This team has the most depth I have seen since being here, so we don’t talk a lot about starters and non-starters,” said Pacapelli Ciano.
Tirado stepped foot on the field for the first time during the 25th minute and made an instant impact, contributing four shots and one shot on goal in 20 minutes.
Marist ended the first half with their highest shots taken since Oct. 27 of last year, in the team’s 0-1 loss against Rider, with 14. The Red Foxes ended the game with 23 shots, breaking last season’s season high of 17.
“It says a lot about our ability to attack moving forward, and that is just something that we’ve been trying to build on,,” said Pacapelli Ciano.
The team’s first goal came from a cross from freshman midfielder Jiji Sweiss to senior forward Anna Maggi, who found freshman forward Ella Bryan inside the box for her first goal as a Red Fox, which came during the 50th minute of play.
Bryan’s second goal in Poughkeepsie came 20 minutes later with a shot on the top of the box to the far right high corner. New Haven answered almost immediately. In the 71st minute, junior defender Mia Quensel ripped one right past sophomore goaltender Nelly Bianchi-Nagle for her first career goal.
In the last minute of play, junior forward Delia Hahn snuck one in with the goalie far off her line, securing the first Red Fox win of the season.
“I think we’ve gotten better every game. Every day we show up and need to be our best,” said Bryan. “This win gives us a lot of confidence in ourselves and we know that we have the ability to score goals and we have the ability to get shots off and have a lot of attack.”
Marist will head into MAAC play on Saturday vs Siena at 1 p.m. at Tenney Stadium after ending their non-conference season in the win column.
Edited by Ben Leeds
Graphic by Nate Babcock
Photo via Cassidy Connors
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