Box Score Box Score
The Fairfield University women's soccer team won for the sixth time in seven outings with a dramatic 2-1 win over visiting Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) foe Marist College Saturday evening on Lessing Field. The Stags improved to 6-4-2 overall and 2-0-0 in the league, while the Red Foxes fell to 4-5-2 on the year and 2-1-0 in conference action.
Ashley Small (Melville, N.Y.) answered the game-tying goal 13 seconds after Marist scored it to give the Stags the victory. Marist tied the score when Alycia Cartica (Pleasant Valley, N.Y.) headed a pass from Samantha Panzner (Livingston, N.J.) into the upper corner with 2:23 to play in regulation. The Stags answered quickly however, right off of the restart. Nikki Stanton (North Bend, Wash.) sent the restart to Pam Coufos (North Andover, Mass.) who touched the ball ahead and then played it into the box for Small, who beat Andrea Wicks to the far side for the decisive tally.
Marist outshot the Stags 9-4 in the second-half and 12-11 for the game as the Stags held onto a 1-0 lead that it took in the closing minutes of the first half. Small fed the ball along the top of the six-meter box to Erin Pettersen (Massapequa, N.Y.) in the 40th minute and she put it into the back of the net for her first goal of the season.
Kathleen Early (Rockville Centre, N.Y.) made four saves in net for Fairfield to earn the win, while Wicks made six stops in the effort for Marist. The Stags were called for 21 fouls, to the Red Foxes 10, and Marist had a 5-3 edge in corner kick chances.
Small's goal was her team leading seventh of the season and the fourth time this season that she has accounted for the game-winning tally.
Fairfield has won three consecutive games, allowing just one goal during the stretch, while scoring seven times of its own.
The Stags return to action on Wednesday when they host Quinnipiac in a MAAC contest at 7 p.m. on Lessing Field. It marks the first time that Fairfield will play the Bobcats, a new member of the league, in women's soccer.
