The Fairfield men’s soccer team returned home following a disappointing 2-0 loss to Boston College last weekend and were met by almost 800 cheering students who came out for the Stags match-up against Yale on Friday night.
The Stags did not disappoint the fans, as they defeated the Bulldogs 1-0 to move to 3-1 on the season. Fairfield was led by its strong defensive play and a goal by senior midfielder Sam Bailey, who now has three goals this season. The Stags continued their dominance at Lessing Field as they have now won 25 of their last 27 regular season games at home.
“At this stage in the season we are still trying to put things together, but what has worked over the years is personality and you certainly saw that today,” said Head Coach Carl Rees. “We weren’t playing our best football today, but we did grind out the win and kept a clean sheet against a good Yale team.”
Fairfield struggled to keep possession of the ball as the first half began, as Yale kept the ball in the Stags end of the field for the majority of the first 20 minutes. The Stags faced a good amount of threats from the Yale attack early on in the game.
In the first minute of the game Yale put the pressure on the Stags goalkeeper, senior Jon Paul Francini, as Eric Meyer made a run down the left side of the field and cut towards the center, looking to make a pass. With no one open, Meyer attempted a shot and Francini was forced to dive across the goal to knock the ball aside.
“It was a close one. It came off a flick, I just knew I had to get across and do anything I could to get it out of the goal, it was perfect timing,” said Francini.
The Stags first scoring chance came on a curving shot by junior defender Tom Clements, who sent the ball at the net, nearly missing the top right corner.
Five minutes later, at the 30:27 mark in the first half, Clements again found himself with the ball in the offensive zone and sent a pass to Christian Uy ’10, who went up for a header, but collided with Yale’s goalkeeper Erik Geiger and the ball bounced harmlessly out of the way.
Yale seemingly took the first lead of the game, as Brad Rose charged down the left sideline and cut to the middle of the field where he found himself open towards the goal. He ripped a shot at the net and the ball was deflected by Meyer, who was called offsides, waving off the goal.
The Stags finally found there way to the net with another scoring chance at the 12:27 mark of the first and this time were able to convert. After strong midfield play by Uy, Matthew Uy ’11 and David Piedrahita ’10, Matthew Uy found himself with the ball and an open passing lane. He put the ball on net and found Bailey, who connected with the goal.
“Matt [Uy] sent a great ball into the box,” Bailey said. “He pulled the defenders one way and sent the ball to me going the other way which created the chance on the other side.”
Rees was impressed by the passing ability of his freshmen midfielder, as well as his senior.
“Sam does a great job. We asked him to penetrate through the defense and get into the box,” said Rees. “It was a lovely ball as well. You will see as the season goes on Matthew Uy is like an artist in there, he is dynamite.”
The Stags kept control of the ball during the second half, allowing few chances by Yale and stopping those that the Bulldogs had. Yale had only four shots on goal in the second half, but Fairfield did little to increase its lead with only two shots on goal.
Yale’s best chance came when Rose sprinted down the sideline with 12 minutes left in the game and was taken down hard by Clements, setting up a free kick. The ball was flicked into the box by Tyler Guse and headed on net by Markus Jackson, but the ball went just over the crossbar and out of play.
The Bulldogs had one final opportunity to score, as they turned up the pressure in the final moments of the game. Rose again found himself near the net and shot on Francini, who had to dive to make the final save of the game, one of his three, in his second shutout of the year.
Rees acknowledge the Fairfield student fans following the game, who were loud all game long.
“God bless them,” Rees said. “We have fantastic fans. We go all over the country and no one beats the color, the pageantry and the numbers that we have at our games. Their participation certainly lifts our team.”
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