Post by FU73 on Oct 31, 2018 20:28:58 GMT -5
The Stags (11-4-2)(8-0-2) won their second consecutive MAAC Men's Soccer Regular Season title and the #1 seed in the 2018 MAAC Men's Soccer Championship tonight with a 1-0 win tonight over Manhattan before 473 fans at Lessing Field. The program won back-to-back regular-season titles in 2005 and 2006 but only won the conference tournament once during that two-year run.
"There's very little fun in repetition," Coach Rees said. "It doesn't really excite anyone unless you are doing something absolutely incredible. What we set out to do was something that we had not done before in winning back-to-back regular season and tournament championships so that is what we are aiming for."
"As the season progressed, the most difficult third of the field is in the final third," Coach Rees said. "So it makes sense that as the season evolved we would be more potent in the offensive third with our combination play. The goal tonight was an example of that where it was a nice third-man combination with an overlapping run with a good delivery into a dangerous area with a punched header finish down."
"They learned to win a big game," Coach Rees said. "The value of a regular-season championship is that it is over the course of ten games. So over the course of the conference season, we proved that we were the best in the league so far. However, the next challenge for us is the semifinals of the MAAC tournament so that is what we are focused on now."
With the regular-season title, home pitch advantage comes to the Stags as the top team in the standings. Last year, Fairfield parlayed its regular-season championship into a pair of home wins that sent the team to another NCAA tournament berth. This year, the Stags were already guaranteed a first-round bye since they had wrapped up a first or second seed in the MAAC tournament which starts this weekend. Fairfield also has home pitch advantage in its Semifinal match with the opponent yet to be determined.
"Jon (Filipie) is unique in that you don't get many players who are that explosive and that effective in one versus one," Coach Rees said. "It's kind of a dying art, the tricky winger from the old days. And Jon is that player who brings a ton of value in the attacking third and on counter attack situations as was witnessed tonight."
The 2018 Men's Soccer Championship is November 4, 8, 11 with the games to be played at the higher seed. First Round games will take place on Sunday, November 4 hosted by the No. 3 and No. 4 seeds, Semifinal games are hosted by No. 1 Fairfield and No. 2 Quinnipiac on Thursday, November 8. The Championship Game kicks off on Sunday, November 11 hosted by the highest remaining seed.
Box Score:
fairfieldstags.com/boxscore.aspx?id=9142&path=msoc
Stag Men's Soccer
MAAC Regular Season Champions (5): 1998, 2005, 2006, 2017, 2018