Fairfield has a busy slate of games this week, having only played two games over the past two weeks. The Stags have been on a two-game losing streak with two tough losses that could have gone either way. However, Coach Krystian Witkowski is not worried, saying, “This group knows where they need to do better.”
They look to get good results against Marist and Iona, who have both started well to open up the season. This comes after a rough loss to Siena, who were able to hold Fairfield scoreless in a 1-0 game. This loss puts Fairfield at a 3-4-1 (1-1) record.
The Stags start this week of games tonight against Marist in Poughkeepsie, N.Y.. Marist is unbeaten so far this season with a 6-0-2 record. They have notable wins against Quinnipiac and Mount St. Mary’s. Notably, they did draw against Army, whom Fairfield beat earlier in the season.
Fairfield has a record of 16-7-3 all-time against Marist, with Fairfield winning the last matchup 2-1. Coach Witkowski shared that the Stags are going to be focusing on exploiting Marist’s weaknesses and evading the defensive measures Marist takes against them. When asked about the specific plan for tonight’s match, senior Jordan Blunschi shared that it included “making sharp runs into the box and being really aggressive with our attack.”
Top players for Marist are sophomore Gijs Verheul, who leads the team in goals and has scored in the past two games and senior Jonathan Salguero, who leads the team in assists.
Even though he doesn’t lead in any major categories, first-year Adriano Iannelo is one of the top scorers and assist leaders. Additionally, graduate goalkeeper Jamie Lowell has 26 saves with a .788% save percentage.
Next, Fairfield comes back home to play Iona University on Saturday night. The Gaels are 3-2-2 with a game against Saint Peter’s set for tonight. Iona lost to Monmouth earlier in the season, and Fairfield was able to dominate earlier in the year, 3-0.
The Stags are 14-8-4 all-time against Iona; the two sides’ last matchup ended in a draw.
Some of Iona’s top performers include graduate Schmidt Hollensted, who is one of the leading goal scorers, tied with first-year Enbiya Bolur with two goals apiece.
Junior Calle Sjoberg leads the team in assists with two. Iona is backed in net by sophomore Goalkeeper Fernando Alves Schmelz, who has 15 saves and a .652% save percentage.
This past weekend, Fairfield traveled to Siena to face the Saints on Saturday afternoon. Siena was able to pull a result out of Fairfield, winning 1-0. Siena took the lead right after halftime with first-year Martin Piedeleu scoring his second goal of the year in the 46th minute.
The match was a battle throughout with very physical and aggressive play. There were three yellow cards given out in this match.
Once Siena was able to take the lead in the match, they stacked the box, making it very hard for Fairfield to get shots on goal or make many opportunities. They did this the entire second half until the 90th minute when they eventually won the game.
First-year Evan Chomow came up big in this game for Fairfield, making six saves in the game, bringing his total up to 35 saves on the year and bringing his save percentage to .778%. Another factor that won’t show up on stats is what his teammate Blunschi states, “He’s incredible with his feet, so having that release in press, knowing that you can just always play it back to your keeper… means a lot.” Both first-years, Alex Vaz and Sean Albritton, lead the team in goals with three each.
Fairfield will get Albritton back in these next games after Albritton was sidelined after a red card in the Vermont game, which caused him to be suspended for the Siena game. Junior Cameron Gerber leads the team in assists with five.
