Oct. 20, 2007

Final Stats

POUGHKEEPSIE, N.Y. - On Saturday night, the Marist College men's soccer team came up with a much needed win over MAAC rival Siena. The Red Foxes (5-6-2, 2-2-1 MAAC) got a goal from freshman Joe Touloumis (Cranford, N.J.) twelve minutes into the match, and the defense was able to hold off a furious second half attack from Siena for a 1-0, Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference win.

The Red Foxes came out strong and pressured Siena throughout the opening ten minutes. After controlling the ball for the entire early part of the match, Marist broke through when Jason Nacca (Rochester, N.Y.) made a beautiful cross to Shareif Ali (Hopewell Junction, N.Y.), who tapped over to Touloumis who was able to head it in for the score.

The freshman was very happy with the win and the goal. "It was nice to score in such a huge game for the team," Touloumis said. "It's shakeout week in the conference and we made a statement tonight. To go out and beat our rivals is big. Now, we just need to keep this momentum going match to match."

Daniel Owens (Port Jefferson Station, N.Y.) was in net for the Red Foxes. The win improved his record to 3-2. Owens made two saves.

In the second half, Siena turned up the intensity and forced the action. Owens and the rest of the Marist defense bent but did not break, and they were able to hold off the Saints attack. Nico Mossa (Pelham, N.Y.), Desmond Farrelly (Emerson, N.J.), Mike McGowan (Oxford, Conn.) and Nacca all did a great job in holding the 1-0 lead.

Head Coach Matt Viggiano was happy with his teams win and resilience. "We showed some guts tonight, bottom line."

Each team took ten shots but Siena held a 6-5 edge in the second half.

Siena got their best chance with about seven minutes left when Thomas Ciovacco was able to break away from the Marist defense and had a one-on-one with Owens. Owens charged and forced the action and Ciovacco wasn't able to get off a good shot.

"We showed a little bit of youth in that second half," Viggiano said. "We lost some of our aggression, but all in all it was a good performance. We took care of business, got the win, and put ourselves in position to control our own destiny the rest of the way. I'm very happy with my guys"

The win gave the Red Foxes (2-2-1 MAAC) an inside track to the MAAC tournament quarterfinals half-way through the conference season. The top six finishers in the conference will get a bye into the tournament quarterfinals.

Marist will take six days off before returning to action at home, versus Iona next Friday. Game-time is set for 7 p.m.