With 800 students dressed in red, wearing face paint and cheering loudly for the Stags, the crowd at Lessing Field was one of the wildest the men’s soccer team has ever seen.
The atmosphere for the game against Yale Saturday night could have easily been mistaken for a college football game.
Head Coach Carl Rees was extremely pleased by the crowd turnout.
“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.”
Senior midfielder Sam Bailey also talked about Fairfield fans, saying that all the home games he has played have been the most memorable moments of his career because of the energy and support they lend.
The men’s soccer team is one of the best teams in school history and deserves the attention of the students on campus. Last year, the team played as well as any other soccer team in the country and finished the greatest season any athletic team at Fairfield has ever had.
The Stags are back again this year with Bailey, goalkeeper Jon Paul Francini and defender Tom Skara, forming one of the top senior classes in team history. Francini’s goals against average was one of the top 20 in the nation, while Skara was the MAAC Defensive Player of the Year.
The Fairfield version of football is just as exciting as the more popular version of football played on other college campuses across the country.
It may be known as a boring sport, but once you attend one game and you feel the atmosphere for yourself, you will watch with intensity as the Stags try to continue their dominance at Lessing Field.
The Stags have had a true home-field advantage the past three seasons, as they have won 25 of their last 27 regular season games, along with two games in the MAAC Tournament last year, including the championship game at Lessing Field.
Rees has quietly built a dynasty at Fairfield that is better than any other Fairfield sports team in the past. He continues to recruit top players, many from his home country of England, including Bailey and junior defender Tom Clements. Freshman defender Jack Cleverly also continues the tradition of top English players coming to Fairfield.
The Stags are poised for another run at the MAAC Championship and have a chance of going even farther in the NCAA Tournament than last year, when they defeated UConn in the first round before falling to Towson in the second round.
If you haven’t jumped on the Fairfield soccer bandwagon yet, it’s not to late to hop aboard.
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