Fairfield 0 Boston College 0

The Fairfield Stags Men's soccer team (1-1-3) battled #13 Boston College (2-0-2) to a scoreless draw last night. It is the second straight tie for the Stags. Click here for a complete recap.

The Least You Should Know:
-Michael O'Keeffe extended his scoreless streak to 281 minutes. He made 5 saves in the contest including a diving stop in the closing minutes.

-The Eagles outshot the Stags 17-11 including 6-3 on goal.

-In the 99th minute, Fairfield's shot hit the crossbar and Adam Cowen got the rebound but the Eagle's goalkeeper managed to save it and force a second overtime

Do the Stags win this game with Jack Burridge? It's questionable but you can certainly make the argument. All-in-all this is a GREAT game for the Stags. I mean even though they did not pull off the upset they showed that they can go face to face with some of the best teams. For a team that lost aganist winless Albany to start the year this is a HUGE step in the right direction and with only a few non-conference games left, this team might be getting hot at the right time.

Up Next:
The Stags play their sixth straight home game as they host the Northeastern Huskies Friday at 7PM.

Women's Soccer needs to bounce back

After a scorching start to the season, the Fairfield University women's soccer team has cooled off in their last three games. The team experienced their lowest point of the season when they were shut out by UMASS on a chilly Sunday. Coach Jim O'Brien had only one word to describe the loss: "embarrassed."

The team has now dropped to .500 after starting the season winning 3 in a row without allowing a goal. Since then, the team has been outscored 8-1 and has been outshot 73-18 over that span.

Despite the recent slide, this team has shown promise. They nearly upset #22 Georgetown by managing to bring them into overtime, and held their own against Boston College, the fifth best team in the country. Coming into this year, the Stags knew that this difficult schedule, which featured back-to-back games against nationally ranked teams, would test their skill and depth. "It's always important for us to have a challenging non-conference schedule," O' Brien said. The sixth year head coach has seen many successful teams at Fairfield. He ranks second in wins on the all-time school list and has led the Stags to at least nine wins in each of his seasons and a NCAA Tournament bid in two of those years. You can say he knows talent. And he sees the promise of this team, comparing them to the 2008 team. That squad received 16 votes in the final NSCAA National poll by winning the MAAC championship and only losing by a goal in the Big Dance.

The one aspect of the game that he is most worried about is the team's inability to bounce back after adversity. "The way games are scheduled is to play Friday and Sunday, so you have to get over the tough losses." The ability to recuperate after these types of games defines the character of any team. It would be hard for any group who just had a heartbreaking narrow upset to come back and play an even better school in less than a week. However, O'Brien can see this now and is trying to improve early in the campaign. The loss to UMASS might have been the wakeup call that the team needed. "It's back to the drawing board," O'Brien sighed. If Fairfield is to be successful they are going to have to not just forget but learn from this "embarrassing" loss. That journey will begin when the team travels to Stony Brook on Thursday. Maybe it is a change of scenery that will help propel this promising team and have all their talent pay off.

2010 Mens Soccer Schedule

For the complete schedule click here.

This looks like a great schedule for the team. We should be at the top of the MAAC while only graduating a few seniors from last year and having Jack Burridge healthy.

What I'm most impressed with is having 7 straight home games to begin the year. Hopefully we get a fan fare for a couple of those including: Boston College and U Mass.