(Photo Courtesy of UMass Athletics)
After having the first four games of their season postponed, the UMass Minutemen took the field for the first time in 369 days on Sunday afternoon against the Fairfield Stags, winning 13-9 in a CAA contest.
Chris Connolly paced the Minutemen offense with a hat trick while Gabriel Procyk and Billy Philpott each had two goals and one assist for three points. Freshman Dillon Arrant had two goals in his college debut.
Matt Knote seemingly picked up right where he left off during his freshman campaign a season ago, making 10 saves with a 52% save percentage in cage. However, the Minutemen defense in front of him also deserves a ton of credit. UMass caused 11 turnovers in the game, which included eight in the second half alone. Fairfield ended the game with a total of 20 turnovers.
The moment for Matt Chlastawa came before a 6 a.m. practice.
To allow for social distancing, Fairfield players had to stagger time spent in the locker room during fallball. This time, he was with the early group, getting out to the field at Rafferty Stadium well before many others.
“I got out there super early,” he says. “I was playing wallball, and I walked out to the field. The sun was just rising. It was beautiful. Rafferty Stadium is unbelievable.
“There was nothing else I had to do other than be there and compete and have fun. At that moment, there was nothing I would rather do than be where I was.”