FAIRFIELD, CT – The Iona College men's soccer dropped a Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference contest against the Fairfield Stags on Wednesday night, 2-1. The Gaels are now 5-5-2, 1-3-1 MAAC on the season.

GAME SUMMARY

Fairfield took the lead in the 7' with Santiago Gonzalez scoring off a rebound from Joseph Meyer's initial shot. The score was a culmination of heavy Stag pressure over the opening minutes. Fairfield had four shots in the first seven minutes and sophomore Giuliano Santucci had to make three significant early saves.
 
Junior defenseman Malcolm Moreno tied the game at one in the 21'. Sophomore Najim Romero earned the assist with his cross from the ride side of the box towards the far post where Moreno headed it home for his first goal of the season and second of his career.
 
Two of Iona's five first half shots came from junior midfielder Francesc Chulia. Senior Killian Colombie and rookie Esad Mackic also had attempts in the opening frame.
 
The Gaels were outshot 7-5 in the first half. Santucci made five saves in the first half.
 
The Stags kept Iona without a shot in the second half until the 56' when Colombie tested Fairfield's keeper Gordon Botterill. From there the Maroon & Gold cranked up the pressure with a pair of shots from Romero and senior Ali Dawha.

The force did not result in a goal for Iona and instead Fairfield rebounded from it with a score in the 72'. Jonathan Filipe converted a diving shot on a free kick from Matt McGlinchey to five the Stags a 2-1 edge.

Iona did not have a shot in the final 16 minutes of the match. It finished the game being outshot 11-9 and most notably, 10-5 in terms of shots on goal.

NOTABLE NUMBERS

• Fairfield's 10 shots on goal is the most by an Iona opponent this season. The previous high was nine by the New Hampshire Wildcats on Sept. 12.
• The Gaels have not had the corner kick advantage in four straight games. The last time it had the advantage was against Canisius on Sept. 29.
• Colombie and Chulia led the Gaels with two shots each. Five different players had one shot on goal.
• Santucci tied his career-best with eight saves against the Stags. He previously had eight against Fairleigh Dickinson (Sept. 18) in his first start of the season.
• Iona has allowed two goals in three straight games. It had allowed two or more goals just three times in the previous nine games.
• The Gaels are allowing 1.91 goals per game in MAAC play. That's compared to a 1.52 goals against average for the entire season this far.

UP NEXT

The Gaels return to action on Saturday, Oct. 13 at home on Mazzella Field against Quinnipiac at 3:00 p.m. The game is being broadcasted on ESPN3.

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