When redshirt junior defender Priscilla Wiggins stepped up to a 68th-minute free kick with a chance to give Stony Brook the lead, she tried to clear her mind and focus on the moment.
“Honestly, I had to stop thinking. I heard Coach say ‘put it on frame’ and I had to do that,” Wiggins said of her free kick attempt. “It happened to go in.”
From 35 yards away, Wiggins booted a deep shot that curved over the head of Marist sophomore goaltender Ashley Houghton. The home crowd roared in celebration at the blast from midfield, as the New Jersey native provided the game-winning goal in a 1-0 Seawolves victory over the Marist Red Foxes on Monday night.
“It was a great shot,” Stony Brook head coach Sue Ryan said of the match’s determining tally. “You have to credit Priscilla for the great shot, and she might have caught the keeper one step off the line.”
Most teams tend to pass from that distance, but in this match Wiggins was able to strike the ball exactly as she needed to, putting the ball in the back of the net.
The win was the second of the Labor Day weekend for Stony Brook, with the Seawolves defeating Wagner 2-1 on Friday night. The Seawolves now have a 2-4-0 record as they look to refine their game throughout the nonconference season.
“I think the first four games made us realize that we had to step things up a little bit,” Wiggins stated. “I think going into the game on Friday we really felt that we had figured it out. We came together and now we’re just going forward from there.”
Stony Brook led the match in shot attempts 16-10, leading shots on goal 6-3. In corner-kicks, the Seawolves had a 5-2 advantage as they out-possessed the Red Foxes most of the night.
Senior midfielder Tessa Devereaux had four shot attempts, including one that rolled slightly wide right off of a left-flank cross from redshirt junior forward Raven Edwards in the 48th minute. The play structure heavily resembled an assist Edwards had on a goal Friday.
The two best scoring opportunities of the night for the Seawolves came off of the foot of junior forward Lindsay Hutchinson.
In the 52nd minute, Hutchinson tried to go short side on a shot on the left wing, but hit the outside of the post. Later, in the 86th minute, Hutchinson was robbed by a diving stop by Houghton on a mini-breakaway.
One of the constant themes throughout the match was the Seawolves’ inability to stay onsides when they pushed the ball vertically. The team was caught offsides eight times in the match, including once in the second half when it nullified an Edwards goal.
Ryan attributed the trend to the Red Fox’s defensive strategy.
“You have to credit Marist,” Ryan said. “They were running a specific style of defending to catch us off and we were having a hard time timing that.”
On the defensive end of the field, Stony Brook recorded their first shutout of the season. The closest that Marist got to scoring was in the 57th minute. Forward Tori Flaherty found the back of the net for the Red Foxes, only for the referees to find her guilty of offsides on the play.
“I think we did a great not allowing the other team to get into dangerous situations with respect to shooting,” Ryan said. None of Marist’s three shots on goal were from inside the box, and they were easily handled by Seawolves goaltenders Emily Doherty and Cara Gallagher, a junior and freshman, respectively.
Stony Brook will head out on the road for its next match, a Friday date in Hempstead where the Seawolves face the 4-2 Hofstra Pride. It will be the first time the Seawolves will their Long Island rivals since 2008.
