By Ed Morrone
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C.-The final scoreboard will indicate the Hofstra men’s soccer team was blown out by the mighty No. 2 Wake Forest Demon Deacons. The play on the field was anything but that.
The Pride has a plethora of scoring chances throughout the game but could never put that final touch on, while Wake Forest took advantage of every single opportunity it had. Marcus Tracy scored two goals and tallied two assists and Wake built on a 2-0 halftime advantage to end the Pride’s season in the second round of the NCAA Tournament at Spry Stadium. The Demon Deacons (16-3-3) move on to the next round and will host another CAA member in Towson on Sunday afternoon.
“Obviously I’m very disappointed with the score line, but I think the way we played the game and the way we took it to them to create chances was extremely pleasing,” Hofstra head coach Richard Nuttall said. “I think the key point in the game was when we had three or four chances to make it 2-1 but we couldn’t score. They went down and made it 3-0 and we were just chasing from there.”
Nuttall’s disappointment in the end result is understandable, especially because the Pride did not play like the heavy underdog that it was billed as heading into the game. Hofstra controlled the ball and the tempo for much of the game’s first 20 minutes, but couldn’t muster anything by Wake goalie Brian Edwards (five saves).
Without doing much attacking in the Hofstra end in the beginning of the contest, Tracy was still able to strike first in the 22nd minute, lining a low kick past Pride goalie Tom Johansen (four saves) that deflected off the right post and trickled into the net. After weathering more of Hofstra’s attack, Wake set up a counterattack in he 40th minute as Steven Curfman got in behind the Pride defense. Curfman waited on the near sideline for the offense to develop before sending the ball into the box, where Zack Schilawski hammered it by Johansen to give the Deacs a backbreaking 2-0 lead heading into halftime.
“They finished their chances very well,” Nuttall said. “I was impressed with their team speed with the ball going forward. They were tremendous and I give them all the credit, but on the other side of the coin I’m proud we got so many chances against a quality team.”
Hofstra had a slew of chances coming out of the locker room and could’ve used any one of them to cut the lead in half and put some pressure back on Wake Forest. Junior Constantinos Christoudias had the bulk of those chances for the Pride, as he sent the ball in every direction of the net except the one he wanted to. Almost immediately after Christoudias’ fourth chance of the half, Wake marched right down the field and defender Sam Cronin streaked ahead to bead Johansen, who had come out to challenge the ball. Tracy added his second less than four minutes later, and Schilawski re-joined the parade five minutes later to close out Wake’s scoring.
Pride senior Michael Todd finished his storied career less than a minute later with his 40th career goal and 101st career point, and Hofstra will surely look different without no. 9 in the lineup next season.
“It’s been great, I had the time of my life,” Todd said. “My first year was a bit frustrating and I had to get used to the style of play, but my last three years were phenomenal.”
While losing Todd and CAA Defender of the Year Gary Flood, the Pride will bring back many quality players, including Christoudias, Johansen, Justin Flood and Chris Cox as well as freshman standouts Rory McCrea, Lewis Irish, Jamal Neptune and Richard Martinez.