Fairfield men’s soccer travels to crosstown rivals Sacred Heart on Thursday night at 6:00 p.m. in the semifinal match of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Championship. The Pioneers are 8-3-5(7-0-3), which earned them the first seed in the playoffs.
Fairfield is 8-4-5(5-1-4), which earned it the fourth seed in the conference, falling behind the second and third seeds by two points. The Stags are still riding out a now nine-game unbeaten streak, which goes all the way back to Sept. 27th against Siena.
These teams played each other for their last game of the regular season at Sacred Heart, which ended in a 2-2 tie, carried out by first-year forward Sean Albritton, who scored both goals for the Stags.
“I think he’s one of the best strikers in the country,” head coach Krystian Witkowski said.
Something that stands out about Sacred Heart is its 4-0-3 record while playing at home, not losing a game this season.
Sacred Heart has multiple players who have incredible talent on both sides of the pitch, including senior midfielder Danny Garcia Gallego from Spain, junior midfielder Danny Istambouli, who is a Connecticut native and sophomore forward Ivan Morcillo, who also hails from Spain. All three of these players lead the team with goals scored, with five on the season.
Fairfield is preparing for these guys by “understanding the moments of when it’s right to press and when to recover. Take it one minute at a time.” Witkowski said. Fairfield also wants to “Make them as uncomfortable as possible. Press them high and finish them off,” senior defender Jordan Blunschi said.
Gallego and Istambouli are the top two leaders for the team in assists. They are backed up in net by senior goalkeeper Luca Marinelli, who has a .804 save percentage.
The other semifinal going on will take place in Loudonville, New York, between the second seed Siena and Iona on Thursday afternoon at 1 p.m. The winner of this matchup will face whoever wins the Fairfield match on Sunday in the MAAC championship.
The Stags won their quarterfinal matchup last Sunday against the fifth-seeded Niagara University 4-1. The scoring started with an own goal on the Niagara defense after senior midfielder Kaea Rangihaeata crossed a ball into the box, and it hit off the Niagara defender and went into the net.
This was followed right away by a goal by Albritton, which was assisted by sophomore midfielder Illia Trykus. The other goal was scored by senior midfielder William Pierce, assisted by junior forward Massimo Murania. This gave the stags a 3-0 lead in the first 25 minutes of the game.
The momentum carried over to the second half with Trykus scoring his own goal in the 55th minute, giving Fairfield a 4-0 lead. Eventually, Niagara got one back, scoring in the 75th minute, making it 4-1 and ending the scoring for the day.
Albritton has pulled ahead of the rest of his teammates, leading the team with eight goals on the season, with three of them coming in the past two games. Junior midfielder Cameron Gerber leads the team with eight assists. First-year goalkeeper Evan Chomow will be backing the team in net, locking in an .831 save percentage.