Throw out all the records when these two teams meet.
Intensity is above the clouds. Adrenaline is boiling. These two teams look forward to one game a year: Fairfield versus Iona. And this year, the two teams played in the MAAC opener.
The Stags clobbered Adelphi University 5-0 Tuesday night to win their third straight game, improving to 5-3-2 on the year.
Against Adelphia, senior goalkeeper Andrew Frankel recorded his third shutout of the season and freshman Aldo Hope continued his red-hot offesive onslaught, scoring three goals to lead the team.
It was Hope’s late second half goal that lifted the Stags over Iona, and his streak certainly makes him the front-runner in the MAAC Rookie of the Week race.
The league opener was on a very wet and rainy Friday night, so both teams were slipping and sliding all over the field trying to give their team the win.
The Stags jumped on the board early with a goal 70 seconds into the game. Sam Bailey ’08 connected off of a free kick pass directly over the Iona defenders and into the left side of the goal.
Fairfield would hold Iona to no goals in the first half, hanging onto the 1-0 advantage.
Iona tied the game 14 minutes into the second half. A free kick was sent right over the wall of defenders and into the top left corner of the goal, beating Frankel.
The game was getting very close to overtime before Fairfield made a drive. The Iona goalie dropped a caught ball and Hope was there to punch it in the goal.
Fairfield took the 2-1 lead with just under three minutes and held on for the victory.
Although Iona entered the game with a 2-7 record, they still played Fairfield extremely hard.
The game was very rough in the first half and got even rougher in the second. In total, there were 45 fouls and five yellow cards.
The game ended close to even in shots and corner kicks. Both teams had seven shots a piece. Iona had three corners while Fairfield had two.
The Adelphi game was the Stags’ last against a non-confernce opponent. The Stags finished their non-conference schedule 4-3-2, a mark that Head Coach Carl Rees said speaks volumes about the success his team has achieved.
This year’s team has won some of the toughest games in the program’s history.
“Being the first Fairfield University team to win on the road versus ACC [Atlantic Coast Conference] oppostion by defeating NC State [currently ranked 11th in the nation] and defeating a national top 10 team handily [then No. 7 Farleigh Dickinson] are both benchmarks for our program and the University,” Rees said.
Rees stated that a big part of the team’s success this year is the crowd support, and that big things can be expected heading toward the end of the seaosn.
“The crowd support that we have had at all our home games has been unbelievable,” he said. “We will be working hard to give everyone something to shout about.”
Leave a Reply