By Doug Bonjour
For Richard Nuttall and the Hofstra men’s soccer team, stringing together wins has been a challenging task during the 2007 season. While battling numerous injuries throughout the year, inconsistency has plagued the Pride. The team has bore a striking resemblance to Jekyll and Hyde; winning games at Colonial Athletic Conference leader Drexel, only to be embarassed by conference foe Virginia Commonwealth 5-1.
Entering Friday’s game against Towson, weekends Oct. 12-14 against Georgia State and North Carolina-Wilmington and Oct. 26-28 versus Drexel and Delaware marked the only instances in which the Pride had formed any resemblance of a winning streak. However, if the chance of winning a forth consecutive CAA title was to exist, the Pride would have to begin to form the consistency that had been lacking.
Hofstra entered the weekend as part of the four-team logjam in the CAA, all vying for the final two spots in the conference tournament. Coming off a solid weekend, they were confident, and eager to play on their home turf. Yet, as was soon evident, these factors could not help the Pride extend their up and down season much further.
Needing to most likely win the season’s final three games to earn a birth in the CAA tournament, the Pride’s playoff hopes were delivered a serious blow on Friday, as they were defeated 1-0 by Towson. The loss meant that Hofstra would not only have to win its final two games, but also hope that other CAA teams would lose and open up a playoff spot. On Sunday, the Pride did their part in defeating George Mason 3-0, but their playoff hopes came to a crashing end with results from other CAA games. James Madison, Towson and VCU all improved to 6-4 in conference, eliminating the possibility that Hofstra could overtake any of the three in the standings.
Although Hofstra was eliminated from playoff contention, they did not go down without a fight. The Pride dominated Towson in all aspects of the game except for the one that counts: The scoreboard.
Hofstra endlessly attacked the Towson net, totaling 15 shots and 15 corner kicks, but Towson senior forward Angus Burke scored the lone goal, chipping in a crossing pass 9:31 into the half. Following the offensive onslaught that produced a zero on the scoreboard, Nuttall said, “We let ourselves down a little bit in the box by not having that extra ten percent of determination.”
Although the players did not deliver the diving header or the extra toe on the ball that Nuttall was hoping for, he still described the effort from his players as “tremendous.”
“You look at the game and you’ve got to be proud of the way we played,” explained Nuttall.
Senior midfielder Chris Cox, who played despite re-injuring his foot in practice earlier in the week, also credited the team’s effort following the loss.
“We played well; we’ll keep our heads high. We knew we did everything we could, but it didn’t work out for us,” he said.
Despite missing out on numerous scoring chances by inches, Cox knew that the team’s morale would still remain upbeat.
“All season we’ve been unlucky and we’ve still kept our heads high. We stay positive no matter what. We’ll be down for half an hour, and then we’ll be back up and ready,” he said.
On Sunday, the Pride were back up and ready for their match-up against George Mason in a big way. A 3-0 win kept the team’s playoff hopes alive for the time being.
Shortly into the first half, Hofstra again missed multiple scoring opportunities, leaving Nuttall thinking that the team’s inability to score had spilled into the game.
“As a coach, you’re sometimes pessimistic, but you’ve got to stay optimistic,” said Nuttall.
Both Nuttall and his players remained optimistic and were able to finally score 36 minutes into the game, off a shot by Cox that found the lower left corner of the net. Cox added a second goal less than five minutes later, off a perfect feed from sophomore midfielder Rob Youhill which allowed a streaking Cox to place in the lower right corner of the net. Freshman defenseman Steven Ehrichs later added his first-career goal, as he picked up a loose ball in the box and shot it in from 12 yards out.
Following the win, Nuttall said his team, “played pretty much the same way as Friday,” but was able to get the goals on Sunday.
Hofstra will wrap up its season Thursday, when Northeastern comes to visit for a 7 p.m. start.
After three straight conference titles, Richard Martinez and the Pride were unable to qualify for the CAA playoffs. (Sean M. Gates)