Sept. 4, 2011
Final Stats
POUGHKEEPSIE, N.Y. - The Marist men's soccer team defeated Adelphi 3-1 in the team's home opener on Sunday evening. Second half goals by seniors Lucas Szabo (Bethesda, Md.) and Troy Confessore (Kendall Park, N.J.) provided the Red Foxes with the go-ahead and insurance goals that the team would need to capture their third consecutive home opening victory.
The Red Foxes began the game with their offense clicking from the start. In the eighth minute, freshman midfielder Dylan Lee (Hopewell Junction, N.Y.) took the ball up the left side of the field and dropped it off to a charging Confessore, who evaded a defender and sent a high cross into the box where junior forward Stephan Brossard (Port Washington, N.Y.) headed it into the back of the Adelphi net for his fourth goal of the season.
Adelphi responded less than six minutes later as Dan Larenius converted a free kick from 20 yards out.
With the score 1-1, the Red Foxes kept up the pressure on Adelphi's defense over the final 31 minutes of the first half in search of a go-ahead goal. From the midfield, both Lee and senior Alex George (Southold, N.Y.) put multiple quality crosses in from the wings to Brossard and sophomore James Curley (Clifton Park, N.Y.).
At the half, the Red Foxes had a 10-3 advantage in shots with a 5-1 lead in shots on goal.
Coming out in the second half, each team found sustained offensive opportunities hard to find in the early goings. Marist's best chance was in the 62nd minute where Lee and senior Krystian Witkowski (Rochester, N.Y.) had back to back shots denied. Following an Adelphi foul near midfield, Confessore lined up with and launched a booming ball inside the 18-yard box that Brossard headed to Szabo's foot. Szabo finished the scoring sequence with a shot past Adelphi's diving goalkeeper Kyle Blackmer from 10 yards out for the eventual game-winner.
With the Red Foxes up 2-1 at the 70 minute mark, the defense and grad student goalkeeper Steve Skonieczny (LaGrangeville, N.Y.) staved off all attempts by the Panthers over the next 17 minutes. During this period of the game, Skonieczny came through with three of his five total saves.
Confessore gave Marist an insurance goal as he curled a free kick to the right of an Adelphi wall and found the right corner of the net from 30 yards out at 87:00.
With the 3-1 victory, Marist improves their record to 2-1 on the young season, while Adelphi falls to 0-2.
For the game, the Red Foxes outshot the Panthers 15-9, with an 8-6 advantage in shots on goal.
Post-game head coach Matt Viggiano was happy with his team's performance, "prior to this game, we talked about defending our home turf; the guys did a good job with scoring that early goal." "I feel we dominated play in the first half; we continued working hard in the second half and got our just rewards."
When asked about Confessore's career game he exclaimed that "I'm real proud of my captain; I challenged him to step up tonight and he played great."
"This was a good team win at home, I'm very proud of my guys tonight."
The Red Foxes' next game will be in Evansville, Ind. on Friday, Sept. 9 as they take on Evansville in the first game of the ProRehab Aces Soccer Classic.
