Marist men’s soccer earned a resounding 3-0 victory over Saint Peter’s in the Red Foxes’ final regular-season game. This win keeps their playoff hopes alive, as they needed to win and now have to get lucky with results elsewhere to make it into the playoffs.
Junior midfielder Kyle Evans scored the first goal and assisted the second for Marist, extending his scoring streak to three games.
Marist (8-4-4, 4-4-2 MAAC) took a whopping 28 shots this game, a new season-high by six. The Red Foxes also put a massive 13 shots on goal, tying their highest mark of the season.
Evans’ first goal, in the 13th minute, came from a long ball from freshman attacker Adriano Iannello. Iannello sent it high into the Jersey City winds, the ball swirling around and beating both the goalie and defender nearest to Evans. Evans collected the ball with an empty net and made no mistake.
The Red Foxes continued to control the game, ending the first half up 1-0 on the scoreboard while taking eight more shots than the Peacocks and having a lion’s share of the possession.
Importantly, Marist also kept senior forward Tim Strele quiet, only allowing him room to take three shots. Strele, who was ranked 62nd in Top Drawer Soccer’s Mid-Season rankings, has 12 goals on the season in just under 1300 minutes of game time, good for about a goal per 90 minutes.
Evans got himself involved quickly in the second half, setting up sophomore forward Chris Verheul to make it 2-0. Evans won the ball around the halfway line, carried it into the box and laid it off to Verheul, who beat senior goalkeeper Oliver Alaviuhkola.
Alaviuhkola, who had not started a game since Aug. 30, made a strong nine saves in the match.
Sophomore defender-turned-midfielder Gijs Verheul struck the crossbar a few minutes later as Marist piled on the pressure, forcing the Peacocks into their own half and not letting up.
Saint Peter’s was limited in their fouls, only committing seven, but nearly every one stopped a Marist attack and gave the visitors a prime free kick opportunity. A few went to waste over the first hour of play, but the Red Foxes struck the back of the net in the 69th minute.
Senior midfielder Skylar Cunha sent in a ball from the left side, outside the box, and freshman defender Miles Douglas got his head on it to beat Alaviuhkola and extend Marist’s advantage. That goal, Douglas’ first of his career, was the final nail in the coffin.
Substitute midfielders, freshman Benjamin Mills and sophomore Caio Cavaletti, each almost got their own in the 78th minute but were denied from close range by Alaviuhkola and the defense.
The Peacocks did keep pressuring, forcing two saves out of graduate student goalkeeper Jamie Lowell, including a very acrobatic diving save in the 82nd minute, but Lowell and the Marist defense did enough to blank Saint Peter’s. This match makes back-to-back goalless games for the Peacocks, and three in their last four.
This win puts Marist on 14 points at the end of conference play, and up to fifth in the standings as the last set of games begins. Marist is battling with Niagara (13 points), Quinnipiac and Manhattan (12 points) for the 5th and 6th spots in the playoffs. The Red Foxes hold the tiebreaker over Manhattan and Quinnipiac, but not Niagara.
Niagara hosts Canisius, Manhattan hosts Iona – the Gaels already clinched a spot but still have to play to determine their seed – and Quinnipiac travels to Merrimack. Quinnipiac is winless on the road this year, which gives the Red Foxes a glimmer of hope.
For Marist to earn a spot in the playoffs, they need two of the aforementioned three teams not to draw or lose. If Niagara draws or wins, they are in. Quinnipiac beat Manhattan and Niagara, therefore holding the tiebreaker over both.
Iona and Manhattan kick off at 6 p.m., the other two games start at 7 p.m. The first round of the MAAC playoffs begins on Sunday, Nov. 9.
Edited by Ben Leeds
Graphic by Jaylen Rizzo
Photo by Celia Green
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