Iona men’s soccer head coach, Fernando Barboto, earned his 100th collegiate victory Oct. 6 against MAAC rivals the Fairfield Stags in a crushing 4-2 win to kick off conference play.

The first half of the heightened rivalry was a battle for possession and tempo. As Fairfield sat back, the Gaels continuously applied high pressure using their agile forwards to press the Stags’ defenders.

Junior forward Samuel Adjei put the Gaels ahead just under 16 minutes into the game, scoring his second goal of the season. Iona sophomore goalie, Borja Barbero, made a diving effort in the 35th minute to keep the Gaels ahead. Unfortunately, about four minutes later, the Stags found the back of the net. Stags forward Jordan Ayris scored his fourth goal of the season on a header perfectly placed from a set piece from freshman teammate George Newton.

Minutes before the half, Iona was back on the attack. Junior midfielder Franklin Castellanos found sophomore defender Willya Mekolo at the top of the 18. Mekolo used his strength to hold off defenders and ripped a perfectly placed shot with his left foot into the top corner. This was the first collegiate goal for the New Rochelle native.

The start of the second half was extremely physical, with the Gaels ahead 2-1. In the 62nd minute, the Gaels were awarded an indirect free kick inside the 18. Senior captain, Alvaro Torrecilla, slightly touched the ball ahead for Castellanos, who curled the ball past the Fairfield goalie for his first goal of the season.

Less than 30 seconds later, the Gaels were back on the attack. Senior forward Ansger Otto used his speed and skilled dribbling ability to evade a Fairfield defender and crossed the ball to find Torrecilla open, who headed in his first goal of the season.

Down 4-1, Fairfield sophomore Jake Zuniga cut the deficit scoring straight off of a corner, which seemed to be a result of a defensive communication error for the Gaels. Fairfield continued to press and their final opportunity came with about 15 minutes left when a shot was rocketed off the crossbar.

Iona earned a well-deserved 4-2 victory to open up conference play, handing Fairfield their first conference loss since the 2010 season.

“I felt the team played really well and it started from training well all week and today, our hard work paid off,” Adjei said.“It was coach’s 100th win and we were determined to show him our appreciation.”

The Gaels had one last non-conference test against the sixth ranked Connecticut Huskies. The Gaels were able to hold off the Huskies in the first half. Unfortunately, less than 10 minutes into the second half, the Huskies took a 1-0 lead off of sophomore forward Allando Matheson’s header past Barbero. The Huskies put the game away in the 80th minute with a goal from junior forward, Mamadou Doudou Diouf. Diouf leads the Huskies with nine goals.

Although Iona has a 3-8 record, they have competed against top caliber non-conference opponents all season long.

“I think that most importantly we learned to be a team,” senior captain Doug Stephens said. “I mean we realized we would not go undefeated against all the best teams in the country. But by playing teams like that it would prepare us for all MAAC teams and help prepare us for the NCAA tournament which is our ultimate goal.”