Marist had knocked off a top 10 opponent on a Tuesday before, just as the Red Foxes did this week against Army.
The similarities end right about there. On an April night in 2016, Marist needed overtime to escape Stony Brook with a victory. There was no such uncertainty tied to Tuesday’s 17-9 drubbing of the Black Knights.
“This game was such a different feeling because of the way it transpired during the game and how convincing it was,” coach Keegan Wilkinson said. “It was a big statement for us as a program to show up and perform at that level.”
To be sure, no one will confuse Marist (2-1) with one of the sport’s bluebloods. It has three NCAA tournament appearances to its credit, and its lone postseason victory came in a play-in game against Bryant in 2015.
But it is a program with some sustained success. The Red Foxes have won two of the last five Metro Atlantic tournaments. They have four 10-win seasons in the last seven years. They’re 33-16 in league play over Wilkinson’s first eight seasons.
It helps explain why Marist is willing to take on a trickier non-conference schedule than most in its conference. The Red Foxes dropped a two-goal game at Richmond last weekend and have games against Bucknell and Delaware still to come.
On paper, Marist’s offensive breakout against an Army defense that yielded nine goals in its first three games seemed surprising. But Wilkinson argues the Red Foxes’ showing in the second half of last season — coupled with losing just 4.47 percent of its points to graduation, the seventh-lowest total in Division I — hinted at improvement at that end.
Regardless, scoring and clearing are the two biggest year-over-year areas of improvement for the Red Foxes.
“We had started to make some pretty good strides on offense, and we were playing a lot of freshmen who got more experience and confidence,” Wilkinson said. “We returned a bunch of highly competitive, tough kids. That [scoring bump] is not quite as surprising, but the clearing aspect has been tremendous for us. We did graduate all three of our close defensemen. We knew we had to get better there and knew we’d be doing it with a more youthful group of guys.”
While defense has remained a strength, Marist has seen some younger offensive talent continue to mature. Jamison Embury, a sophomore attackman Wilkinson describes as a “lacrosse rat,” had four goals and three assists against Army and has a team-high 13 points on the season. Sophomore Jojo Pirreca has multiple goals in all three games. Junior Jake Weinman has a team-best nine goals, and sophomore midfielder James Lyons has six goals on nine shots in the early going.
Tuesday’s rout hinted at the potential for a good program to take a step forward, but Wilkinson isn’t about to say the Red Foxes have arrived because of one game.
“We know we have a lot of work to do,” Wilkinson said. “We’re just scratching the ground floor. We have film today, and there’s plenty we need to improve on after Army. We’re not having a celebration down Main Street. We’re getting back to work to try to get ready for next week against Hartford.”