On Sunday afternoon, the Quinnipiac Bobcats were defeated by the Fairfield Stags in the MAAC championship game 1-0, ending their season.
This was a rematch from a year ago, which saw the Bobcats win 1-0, with graduate forward Courtney Chochol scoring the winner in that one.
The Bobcats were in Fairfield after losing the last regular season game of the year to the Stags, giving Fairfield the number one seed in the conference.
“Just putting their chances away, to be honest,” said head coach Dave Clarke. “But there was a couple of chances there, and it was the same the first time when we went back and looked. We missed a lot of chances where we didn’t, just didn’t follow them.”
The first half did not see much action, as it was an evenly played half between the rivals.
The best opportunity of the half however came from the Stags as late in the half, graduate midfielder Kendall Patten put a corner into the box, that junior midfielder Sam Kersey was able to get to, but a double deflection was no match for graduate keeper Sofia Lospinoso, who tipped it over the bar, keeping it a 0-0 game.
Moving towards the second half, the Bobcats had a glorious chance of their own when senior midfielder Rachel Roman played a corner into the box, that eventually fell to junior defender Molly Andrews, who poked it just wide of the post, keeping zeroes on the board.
The goalies certainly had a presence in this one, combining for eight saves between the two.
That’s where the MAAC’s leading scorer came into play, as with just under 17 minutes to play, junior back Meghan Carragher put a free kick into the six yard box. Lospinoso came out for a punch but didn’t fully connect, and junior forward Maddy Theriault was there on the spot to collect her 13th goal of the season and deliver the 1-0 lead for the Stags.
That was all the scoring that we would see as the crowd chanted the final three seconds of the game, claiming victory for the home team.
This is the second time this season that the Stags have shutout the Bobcats.
This is also the first time since 2021 that the Bobcats will not be heading to the NCAA tournament, as well as the first time since 2008 that the Stags will be going to the tournament.
“They can hold their heads up, now looking around the school, there’s teams at Quinnipiac that would love to be in our position, ” Clarke said. “So we sort of set the standard for a couple of teams, and they’ve got to drive that forward.”
Quinnipiac’s two year run as MAAC champions comes to an end. For the Stags, they will find out their tournament opponent in the NCAA tournament selection show on Monday, Nov. 11.
