Before the start of Saturday’s game against Marist University, Fairfield honored seniors Karolyn Collins, Sarah Gerali, Emily Wieczorek and Sophia DeVita for their accomplishments and hard work to help the program grow. The “core four” as they are known on the team, have won 41 matches, including 24 conference victories, with a .758 winning percentage in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference.
After coming off a tough 4-3 home loss to Iona, the Stags looked to bounce back with a conference win against the visiting Red Foxes of Marist on Saturday, Oct. 10. Marist would jump out to a quick lead in the first half, which they held for the rest of the game to escape with the 7-2 win.
“All losses are tough, it is unfortunate for seniors to lose on their Senior Day. It’s been few and far between that we’ve lost games on Senior Day. Almost very similar to Wednesday night, the ball didn’t bounce our way. It did in a big way for them and as well as Iona, we just got to get back on track and we’ve got to organize ourselves and get ready for the Siena game, which is obviously super important,” said head coach Jim O’Brien about the team’s loss on Saturday.
Marist jumped to an early lead after three minutes of play when forward Brianna Robinson chased down a back pass from one of the Stags’ defenders to goalkeeper DeVita. After blocking the pass and knocking it off her body, Robinson knocked the loose ball through the net to give the Red Foxes the 1-0 lead.
“The first one was really unfortunate because it’s a pass back and we should be able to handle that and take care of that,” said O’Brien of the game’s first goal.
Nine minutes later, Marist would strike once again after Erica Crosier connected for her first of two goals in the game to increase the Red Foxes lead to two. But Fairfield battled back to cut the lead to one with less than three minutes left in the first half.
Freshman Holly Habyan sent a cross toward forward Jenny Jacobs ’19 who knocked it past Marist’s goalkeeper to make the score 2-1. Habyan’s assist made it the third consecutive game where she has assisted on a goal. The Stags were down 2-1 heading into the half as they were led by DeVita’s career-high seven saves in the first half.
Marist dominated the second half of the game as they jumped out to score five goals in the half. Midfielder Hope Quinonez started the scoring run for the Red Foxes in the 53rd minute of the game; Marist would score two more to give them a 5-1 lead.
With less than 10 minutes remaining in the game, Sara Plowman ’19 shot the ball from the top of the penalty area into the lower corner of the net for her second career goal and second goal of the game for the Stags.
“They don’t quit, from the entire game. We got that second goal late in the game; it kind of ignited us a little bit. They never say die, that’s for sure and that’s a good attribute. We’ll learn from this, we’re a young team,” said O’Brien after the team scored its second goal.
Marist would answer back by scoring two more goals to give them the 7-2 victory.
“We just have to improve upon how we defend our opponents and just cut down on the mistakes,” said O’Brien as the Stags continue MAAC play.
After finishing a 1-1 draw against Siena this past Wednesday, Fairfield will go on the road to take on Monmouth on Saturday, Oct. 17 before returning back home to face in-state rival Quinnipiac University.
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