Marist men’s soccer’s offense sputtered Sunday night in a goalless draw against Air Force. The Falcons (0-0-2) did not generate a single shot on target in both teams’ second draw in as many matches.
“For an early season game, you’d obviously like to come out of it with a win,” said Marist head coach Matt Viggiano. “But it’s something we can build on.”
Marist took a whopping 16 shots throughout the 90 minutes, multiple of them being weakly delivered headers that did not trouble the goalkeeper. Of the 16 shots, 10 ended up on target.
The first half was a drab affair, which was only furthered by a sudden downpour around the 35th minute. Neither team mounted a seriously challenging attack, and Marist ended up with all five of the shots on goal. The Red Foxes took 10 first-half shots to Air Force’s three, while both sides ended up with four corners.
“That was definitely something to focus on this week,” said Salivonchik about his team’s set-piece defense. “We haven’t given up an open play goal in about four games now, including preseason.”
Marist nearly got a golden goose in the form of an early penalty — the Red Foxes haven’t taken a penalty kick since November 10, 2024 — but the referee’s video review determined the ball had bounced off the Air Force defender’s arm after taking a touch off his foot, which clears any potential handball offense.
Junior midfielder Caio Cavaletti took the first shot on goal for Marist after a run in which he slipped past a few Falcon defenders, but was unable to get anything on his shot, which rolled tamely into the arms of freshman goalkeeper Hunter Anderson.
Viggiano made four subs in the first half, which he used to completely unit-swap his winger and midfield pairings. Graduate student Gijs Velings and Cavaletti were the midfielders taken off, while sophomore Ronan Hogg and graduate student Mani Diop were the wingers removed. Freshman Seth Hadeed and junior Nathan Karanganwa slotted into the midfield; Freshman Rafael Coulanges and redshirt freshman Dylan Gugin went out wide.
Falcon’s head coach Greg Dalby made six changes of his own in the first half, although none of the half-dozen replacements ended up with a first-half contribution. Sophomore midfielder Tucker Kern, who scored the Falcons’ lone goal in their draw against Army last week, registered a shot for Air Force, with junior attacker Menes Ajyeman and junior midfielder Oliver Becker taking the other two.
Coulanges and Cavaletti were responsible for two of the five Marist shots on target in the first 45; junior defender Evan Marques and junior forwards Gijs Verheul and Chris Verheul took the other three.
“We know we have a skilled team and that we’re going to get chances,” said Viggiano. “Movement in the offensive third usually comes last when it comes to guys not knowing each other.”
Both teams were on the field, ready to resume play for the second half, when lightning struck as the rain was ending and the storm was leaving, triggering a 30-minute lightning delay.
“The guys just wanted to play. Everybody was kind of chomping at the bit to get out and play,” said Viggiano.
Air Force created better chances to open the second half, as senior forward Logan Zaa failed to convert a chance in the box before a potential penalty was reviewed and denied after a challenge from Marist sophomore defender Will Salivonchik.
Neither side created much besides noise pollution in the following half hour as tempers flared; both teams argued numerous takedowns and hard contact plays. In the end, only one player did enough to earn a yellow card, though: Cavaletti got shown the 4×3 slip in the 76th minute.
“If you get frantic from the bench, your guys will,” said Viggiano. “We’re going to have to deal with nervy moments; I’d rather do it now.”
Hogg had arguably the best chance of the game for Marist in the 85th minute when the ball fell to him on the 6-yard line. His shot was saved by Anderson, and Air Force went down the other end and applied solid pressure for the remaining minutes.
The Falcons had three dead-ball chances in the last couple of minutes to no avail, and the match ended 0-0.
Marist remains undefeated with a pair of draws, but has largely struggled to find goals in the season’s early going aside from 25 minutes against Stony Brook.
“[In] the first game, we just gave up bad goals, but today we defended well. We just couldn’t finish our chances,” said Salivonchik. “We just need to score goals.”
The Red Foxes host Cornell on Saturday. Kickoff is scheduled for 7 p.m.
Edited by Max Rosen
Graphic by Jaylen Rizzo
Photo from Marist Athletics
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