Box Score Box Score (PDF) | Photo Gallery

LOWELL, Mass. – The UMass Lowell men's soccer team dropped its fifth straight in a physical, hard fought 1-0 decision against Fairfield University.

The Stags (3-2-1) scored the decisive goal in the 4th minute on a diving header by Jordan Ayris, coming off a free kick from Jake Zuniga.

"We knew they were dangerous on restarts. They have a guy (Zuniga) who whips a great ball. We had to be more disciplined and can't be fouling in our own half, or they were gonna make us pay, and that's just what happened." said Head Coach Christian Figueroa.

The first threatening scoring chance for the River Hawks (2-7-0) came in the 64th minute when a Joseph Conti (Annapolis, Md.) cross found Eric Martin's (Danvers, Mass.) head but the Fairfield keeper made a diving save.

In the 79th minute Conti sent another beautiful ball in the box for Homero Morais (Somerville, Mass.) but Morais' header got sent over the crossbar. With just under four minutes remaining Carlos Ruiz (East Boston, Mass.) had a free kick from 25 yards out, and Wuilito Fernandes (Praia, Cape Verde) connected with his head but sent it wide.

In the waning moments of the game Fernandes found Morais at the far left post, but Morais sent the ball outside the target.

Even though his team went down early, Figueroa was impressed with his young team.

"We're a young team and just because we went down early it was no reason for us to be scared and change tactics. We still had chances in the first half and the second half, but it just comes down to us and not being able to finish."

The River Hawks outshot the Stags 16-7, with 11 coming in the second half. Guilherme Rodrigues (Lowell, Mass.) led the team with four shots, and Ayris had a game-high four shots for the visitors.

Austin Kroll (Baltimore, Md.) made two saves in net, his counterpart Matt Turner made six.

UMass Lowell returns to action on September 27 to host Sacred Heart at 4 p.m.