RADFORD, Va. - Coming out on Sunday afternoon with an edge after earning just a tie after a strong performance on Friday night versus Radford, the Marist men's soccer team "got after it from the first minute and played a complete and dominate 90 minutes of soccer" according to head coach Matt Viggiano. UNC Asheville found out how dangerous a focused and aggressive Red Fox team could be as Marist earned a 4-0 victory in the final game of the Radford Invitational. A quartet of Red Foxes: Evan Southworth (Newburgh, N.Y.), Stephan Brossard (Port Washington, N.Y.), Simon Laugsand (Sortland, Norway) and Wes Finch (Newburgh, N.Y.) recorded goals in the match.
The Red Fox offense came out of the locker room clicking as they almost immediately started pressuring the UNC Asheville defense. After a first minute shot by Wes Finch whizzed wide of the net, the next three attempts over a seven minute span by Marist would test Jaron Bradley, the Bulldog goalkeeper.
Marist's persistence paid off as in the 12th minute, Evan Southworth would register his third goal of the season off of a Matty Berman (West Orange, N.J.) corner kick. Of note, Berman has set up all three of Southworth's goals in the young 2012 season.
Less than four minutes later at 14:59, Stephan Brossard put the Red Foxes up 2-0 as he took a pass from Simon Laugsand 15 yards from goal and rifled a shot past the UNC Asheville goalkeeper.
For a brief span of play in the middle of the first half between the 19th and 23rd minutes, the Bulldogs attempted to get back in the game as they took three shots and put two on goal. In both instances, junior Anthony Sokalski (London, Ontario) came up with the stops.
After quelling the Bulldog offensive, Marist got back to it offensively, as Brossard, Southworth and Finch peppered Bradley with shots on goal within 2:32 of each other. The team's fourth shot on goal in this string of offense would come courtesy of Laugsand, who would net his first career goal at 30:39. The tall Norwegian used his size and length to out-jump the UNCA defender and header home a Josh Faga (Rochester, N.Y.) cross.
At the half, Marist would hold a 3-0 lead on the scoreboard, as well as a 13-6 advantage in shots and a 5-4 margin in corner kicks.
In the second half, the Red Foxes could afford to play a bit more conservative and the stats reflected it as they recorded just seven shots. Unfortunately for UNCA, conservative didn't necessarily mean less effective as Marist saw two attempts by Brossard deflected, one by a defender and one by the crossbar.
Finally in the 78th minute, Finch concluded the Red Foxes' scoring with his second goal of the year. After Brossard controlled a loose ball on a failed Bulldog clear, he passed to Finch, who rocketed a shot past Bradley from straight-on.
With the 4-0 victory, the Red Foxes improved to .500 on the year as they moved to 3-3-1 overall.
For the game, Marist outshot UNC Asheville, 20-10, with a 10-2 advantage in shots on goal and an 8-7 lead in corner kicks. In his third clean sheet of the season, Sokalski finished with two saves.
"I'm really happy to close the tournament with a win. I was proud of the aggressiveness that we showed from the opening kickoff; we've been preaching that, so it was nice to see what a complete 90 minute effort could look like" remarked Viggiano post-match. "After beginning the year with a tough stretch of non-conference games against strong, winning programs, it is great to see that we have fought our way to 500."
The Red Foxes will back in home action as they host Yale on Sunday, Sept. 23 at 1:30 p.m.
