FAIRFIELD, Conn. – In a match that featured the two top scoring offenses in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC), it's sort of ironic that defense played a pivotal role in the decision. Fairfield University's back four along with goalkeeper
Gordon Botterill kept Iona College in check and yielded only one goal to the conference's top scoring team as the Stags edged the Gaels 2-1 at Lessing Field.
As he has done all season long, Head Coach
Carl Rees tinkered with the framework to make adjustments that would hopefully negate the opposition up front and disrupt any offensive flow. Tonight,
Cormac Pike,
Jonas Vergin,
Nadav Zarmi, and Kheireddi Kourdassi played the roles that they were assigned to perfection which kept Iona away from danger for most of the night. And when the Gaels were able to break through, Botterill was there to back them up.
"We gave real defined roles for everybody," Coach Rees said. "We wanted to make it simple as possible so what it ends up being mostly individual duals. You negate the opposition who is good on the attack by recognizing danger and you put your best defender on possession because they can't score if they don't have the ball."
The Gaels did control the ball but usually outside the box and were forced to take shots from 20 yards away. Most of their offensive chances came off set pieces that allowed the Gaels opportunity to set up their offense outside of the game's flow. Iona managed to take nine shots in the game with five being on target, but Botterill was able to turn away four of those opportunities.
Meanwhile, Fairfield came out aggressively and had three excellent chances within the first three minutes of play.
Joseph Meyer and
Diego Casielles made runs at goal in those opening minutes but turned aside by acrobatic saves from Iona keeper Giuliano Santucci. The sophomore goalkeeper made a third terrific stop but yielded a rebound that landed on the foot of
Santiago Gonzalez. The freshman struck the ball true and sent the ball into the far left corner of the net, pushing Fairfield in front, 1-0, in the seventh minute.
"The team gets up for all of it," Coach Rees said. "We're at home and coming off a 5-0 win (over Canisius) and we have learned in the second half of Monmouth that the intensity level was what tipped the scales in our favor. So we have had momentum and carried it into tonight. We were also focus on what we have and executed early. Iona is a good technical team and they can kill you with their ball movement and individual technique. So we really wanted to come out as the aggressor and be on the front foot tonight."
Iona picked up its lone goal of the match on some brilliant ball possession midway through the first half. The Gaels flipped the field with a long cross from the right flank to the left where Jajim Romero received the cross and took a few steps toward goal before launching a cross to the far post. Malcolm Moreno made an exquisite run at the ball and finished with a square header that reached the upper corner of the goal to tie the game at 1-1.
In the second half, Fairfield started in the same way that it began the match – strong play up front that forced Santucci to play brilliantly so his team could keep level.
Don-Junior Bobe, who returned after a three-week absence, made a strong run down the left side and send a cross to the center of the box.
Jonathan Filipe made a sliding effort and put the ball on goal only to have Santucci react accordingly.
Iona also had a chance to take the lead when a long cross from left to right overshot the Stags defenders and found Romero cutting toward goal. He managed to put his foot on the ball and sent it toward the near post, leaving Botterill to the heroics by redirecting the shot away from danger.
The Stags decided the game in the 72
nd minute after Iona was whistled for a foul about 25 yards from goal.
Matt McGlinchey perused the Iona defense and sent a ball toward the back post where Filipe caught up to the ball and dove once again toward the goal. This time, he was able to place full force behind the effort and sent the ball straight to the back of the net for a 2-1 advantage.
Botterill finished the game with four saves while Santucci doubled that effort with eight stops.
The Stags will continue their course later this week with a trip to Rider University, two of the three teams that entered tonight's action unbeaten in conference play. The game is slated for Saturday with a 7 pm start.
