Box Score

POUGHKEEPSIE, NY—Marist scored once in each half to defeat visiting NJIT, 2-0, in non-conference men's soccer Wednesday night on Tenney Stadium at Leonidoff Field on the Marist campus.

 

The Red Foxes (4-1-1) got on the board midway through the opening half on the first college goal for freshman Matt Wendelken at 22:16 and Marist picked up an insurance tally with less than 14 minutes remaining in the contest on the first career goal for sophomore Nick Fedus.

 

The final stat sheet showed Marist with a 14-10 advantage in total shots, including 7-1 in shots on goal. NJIT (1-4-1) had one more corner kick (5-4) than the home team.

 

Graduate student Steve Skonieczny made one save in registering the shutout in goal for Marist, while NJIT's sophomore keeper Adriano Deabreu made five saves in his first college start.

 

Deabreu, who was an injury redshirt as a freshman in 2010, stepped in for Lars Maalen-Johansen, who had been starting, but injured a knee in practice earlier in the week.

 

Marist is ranked fourth in the latest weekly NSCAA/Continental Tire North Atlantic Regional Top Ten Poll. Earlier this season, NJIT lost in overtime at Fairleigh Dickinson, ranked third in the same poll, and the Highlanders tied Long Island (tied for eighth in the region) in their previous game last Sunday in Newark.

 

“We played a good team,” said NJIT coach Cesar Markovic. “There were several periods where we played every bit as well as they did. We possessed the ball well and created opportunities, but we're lacking the finishing touch.”

 

 The Red Foxes got the only goal they would need off of a set piece midway through the opening half. Stephan Brossard sent a free kick from 30 yards out into the goal area, where Wendelken scored his first college goal, heading it into the net from just right of the penalty spot.

 

NJIT had its share of chances in the first half, despite the official shots total that favored Marist, 6-2. Only the goal and one other Marist shot were on target for either team in the opening 45 minutes

 

Less than five minutes before the Marist goal, the Highlanders had threatened in the 18th minute with a fast-breaking counter attack. Matija Blazic took a pass out of the back and raced down the left wing before sending a centering pass to Emeka Nwachukwu, who used a spurt to pull a half-stride from his close-marking defender. However, the Marist goalkeeper Skonieczny, the current Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Defensive Player of the Week, came off his line to close off the play and prevent a strong shot.

 

With NJIT trailing 1-0 in the second half, Nwachukwu, who had substituted back into the lineup moments earlier, took a dangerous shot from 25 yards that went a half-foot over the crossbar in the 65th minute.

 

In the 75th minute, Marist's Lucas Szabo came through the Highlanders defense for a shot from less than 10 yards out, but Deabreu made a fine save, denying the insurance goal by deflecting the ball up and over the top of the goal for a Red Foxes corner kick.

 

However, it was a temporary reprieve, as Marist's Fedus, indeed, produced the insurance goal at 76:38, banging a shot off the crossbar that bounced down and into the goal when the NJIT defense tried to clear it off the line with Deabreu out of position after having come out trying to prevent the Fedus shot.

 

The next match for the Highlanders is Saturday at 7 pm, when they host Drexel on Lubetkin Field at J. Malcolm Simon Stadium.