Marist men’s soccer won its second consecutive game on Monday, beating San Francisco (2-3-1) 4-1 to wrap up its West Coast swing. Sophomore winger Adriano Iannello and junior forward Chris Verheul both scored first-half goals to lift the Red Foxes (2-1-2) to the win after they defeated Saint Mary’s 4-1 on Friday.
A pair of goals inside the first 10 minutes of the second half put this match to bed with plenty of time to spare. Junior midfielder Gijs Verheul scored a phenomenal long-range strike, and graduate student forward Mani Diop benefited from a Dons own goal just a moment later.
The Dons went down after Iannello’s second goal of the season in the 14th minute, and trailed even further in the 31st after Verheul scored. Junior forward Brayden Beason added insult to injury when he picked up a red card five minutes later after a very late challenge on Iannello inside Marist’s half. San Francisco then faced a two-goal and one-player deficit for 55 minutes.
Freshman goalkeeper Gavin Mitlitski got the start in goal for Marist, his second straight start after taking over from junior Alex Murania. Mitlitski made two saves inside the first 10 minutes to help his side get settled into the game. He finished with six saves and now has seven in two matches.
The breakthrough for Marist came about a quarter of an hour in off the right foot of Iannello. He picked up the ball on the top of the box with plenty of space and took his time curling his shot to the far post past diving senior keeper William Krause.
Both teams were trigger-happy with physical contact in this match, especially in the first-half. Marist tallied six first-half fouls, but the Dons led with eight. Six of the 14 total first-half fouls, and a trio for each team, came in the 17 minutes between Red Fox goals.
The Red Foxes doubled their advantage behind captain Chris Verheul in the 31st minute. Junior defender Evan Marques sent a long pass over the top, putting Verheul in behind the Dons’ defense. He took a touch around Krause and slotted the ball home for his second goal of the year
The hosts pushed for a goal to get back in the game but grew more frustrated in the following minutes, and that peaked in the 36th minute after the Dons lost the ball in the attacking phase.
Beason lunged into a challenge on Marist’s opening goalscorer extremely late and was quickly dismissed from the match. San Francisco head coach Chris Brown challenged the call to no avail. The Dons entered this match with two red cards already this season, tied for first in the West Coast Conference, and now have three as a team after just six games.
A great first half for Marist featured just one substitution; redshirt freshman defender Dylan Gugin came on for sophomore defender Will Salivonchik in the 28th minute. Salivonchik battled an ankle injury early in the game.
Marist grabbed two more goals in the first eight minutes of the second half, courtesy of Gijs Verheul and an own goal. Verheul wound up with the ball at his feet after some pinball in San Francisco’s box and sent a rocket into the upper corner from 20 yards out for his first goal of the year.
Verheul’s 51st-minute goal was followed by a Marist fourth in the 53rd minute after a fortunate defensive deflection made its way into San Francisco’s net. Diop drove with the ball and delivered a pass into the middle of the box, with the end result being yet another Red Fox goal.
With more than 30 minutes left on the clock and a massive deficit on the scoreboard, San Francisco let the subs have a crack at it. Brown and his staff elected to use a whopping 13 different Dons off the bench, including a goalkeeper sub in the 67th minute. Senior Ian Burrows took up the spot in between the sticks for the final 20 minutes or so.
Mitlitski’s best save of the match came in the 76th off a shot from graduate student defender Rayden Daijo. Daijo headed a ball down in front of Mitlitski, who dove on top of it just before junior forward David Raphael put his foot through it.
Marist head coach Matt Viggiano took his time making subs and made fewer than usual, choosing to go for freshman midfielder Cole Caviness in place of Chris Verheul in the 65th minute.
Freshman midfielder Seth Hadeed, junior midfielder Nathan Karanganwa and sophomore winger Ronan Hogg replaced junior midfielder Caio Cavaletti, Diop and graduate student midfielder Gijs Velings a dozen minutes later. Freshman midfielder Rocco Strazzella and sophomore midfielder Leo Khang replaced Marques and Gugin in the 87th minute.
San Francisco did get a consolation goal late in the game off a corner headed back across the face of goal by freshman defender Braylon Jernigan. Senior midfielder Alex Solomis nodded it home to make the score 4-1 in the 89th minute.
Marist scored four goals in both its games on this road trip, and only conceded off a penalty in the game against Saint Mary’s and the late goal off a corner in this one. Eight goals for the Red Foxes after just two in their first three games, including a 200-plus minute goal drought that featured a 0-0 draw against Air Force and a 3-0 loss to Cornell.
San Francisco entered the game at No. 35 in the NCAA Division I Men’s Soccer RPI, 67 spots ahead of Marist at No. 102, but both sides will surely have a new ranking heading into the new week.
The Red Foxes get a bit of a break in the coming days; their next match is against Albany on Sept. 15th. Kickoff for Marist’s final non-conference game is set for 7 p.m.
Edited by Max Rosen
Graphic by Isabel Cortese
Photo from Marist Athletics
For more coverage of Marist athletics, follow @cfmarist on Instagram, X, TikTok and Bluesky, and sign up to receive daily alerts here.