Marist University Athletics

(9-7-3, 4-3-3 MAAC)

1st 2nd F Canisius 1 1 2 Marist 0 0 0 Box Score | Video

(11-7-1, 6-4 MAAC)

POUGHKEEPSIE, New York – The Marist men's soccer team suffered a 2-0 loss to the Canisius Golden Griffins in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference quarterfinals at Tenney Stadium on Saturday evening. With the loss, Marist ends its regular season with an 11-7-1 (6-4 MAAC) record.

The Red Foxes 11 wins on the year marks the most wins by the team since 2003 when they also won 11 games.

"I feel like we never really got off" said head coach Matt Viggiano. "There was some miscommunication on the first goal. We were playing well for the first couple minutes and they kind of snuck a goal. We played well after that but it allowed them to sit in and milk the game and seemed to put a little lull in the game and kept us from getting a buzz. We just never found our footing and never got that edge we needed to get a goal. We played from behind all night so it was tough and we didn't get it done."

The Golden Griffins outshot the Red Foxes 15-12 but Marist held a 5-4 advantage in shots on goal and 9-3 advantage in corner kicks. Mark Rajovic finished the evening with two saves.

Canisius opened the scoring in the third minute when Jake Montante carried the ball down the right side and fired a cross into the box that found Eric Strauchen streaking to the right post. Strauchen just got a touch on the ball and was able to redirect it back across the goal and into the left corner for the 1-0 lead.

With the one goal lead, the Golden Griffins were able to sit back in their defensive zone, limiting the Red Foxes' chances.

With just over two minutes left in the opening half, Marist had their best chance of the period to score when a Canisius foul outside the box gave the Red Foxes a free kick. Simon Lund Jorgensen quickly took the kick and fed a threw ball that found Brandon Curtis alone on the left side of the box but his shot was just deflected wide by the Golden Griffins goalie to keep the score 1-0 Canisius.

Both teams came out in the second half looking for the next score but solid defense by both teams kept the ball out of the net.

With just under 23 minutes left in the game, the Golden Griffins extended their lead when Will Pauls fed a ball over the Marist defense to Matthew Santos on a breakaway. Santos carried the ball to the top left side of the box and fired a shot the deflected off Rajovic's hand and into the left corner for the 2-0 lead.

Down by two and with time winding down, Marist pressed for the equalizers and had several chances inside the box but were unable to direct the ball on goal and time expired with Canisius victorious 2-0.

With the win, the Golden Griffins advance to the semi-finals where they will face off against the #1 seed Quinnipiac Bobcats on Friday, Nov. 11^th.