By Stacy Troiano
Opposing defenses beware; the Hofstra women’s soccer team will score. From almost any angle and any foot they will find the net. Coming into Sunday’s game, Hofstra had tallied 13 goals from eight different players in just five games to start the season. The Pride continued its offensive onslaught on Sunday, defeating Fairleigh Dickinson 5-2 in front of a hefty crowd at Hofstra Soccer Stadium.
With the win, the Pride improves to 5-1 on the year, while Fairleigh Dickinson still looks for its first win at 0-5.
Hofstra’s five goals came at the feet of five different players and included the first career goals for senior forward Erin Kelleher, junior midfielder Nicole Bisco and freshman Kayla Pifer.
It didn’t take the Pride long to get on the board. Just over 10 minutes in, sophomore defender Jess Crankshaw took a pass from junior midfielder Liz Guise, dribbled twice and fired a shot from 25 yards out that sailed past Knights’ goalie Rachel Derrico and into the top right corner to put Hofstra up 1-0. The goal was Crankshaw’s second of the year, as she returns to the field after a knee injury she suffered in the fourth game of last season that would keep her out for the rest of the 2006 campaign.
A physical tone was set early on in the match, as the referee called a number of fouls for flying elbows and holding jerseys and handed out four yellow cards in the game. With 19:49 left in the first half, both teams received a scare as sophomore midfielder Diane Caldwell and Knights’ midfielder Katie Hilder collided while going for a header. The side of Caldwell’s head caught Hilder just above the eye as she went down in a pile. Both players would leave the game, and Hilder would not return after getting stitches to close the wound. Caldwell came back on in the second half.
Head coach Simon Riddiough said that the team wasn’t distracted or concerned by the physical play on Sunday.
“Some teams are more physical than others, and we have to prepare the team for that and make sure they don’t back down from that physicality,” he said. “This team’s got that ability. We might be a bit fragile after last year, but there’s no question we’re going to step up and win tackles and challenge people.”
Just over five minutes later, the Pride got back to scoring when junior defender Sara Gulley took a short corner from midfielder Edel Malone and blasted a rocket from 20 yards out just under the crossbar for her first goal of the year.
The tenacious Pride defense, anchored by senior All-American Sue Weber, flexed its muscle throughout the first half, not allowing the Knights crack the back line and leaving them with neither a shot on goal nor a corner kick in the first half.
Riddiough said the continuing improvement of each individual on the defensive unit, including goalie Krystal Robens, has been the key to the strong defensive presence for the Pride so far this season.
Hofstra would add three more goals in the second half, the first coming from Pifer as she took a pass from fellow freshman Qaroline Nahl and made a long run up the left sideline putting the ball past FDU goalie Megan McKellar for her first career goal. Bisco would get in on the action after checking into the game, as she found the net on a deflected shot by sophomore Erika Fuertes.
Minutes later, Nahl ricocheted a shot off the right post, and Kelleher barreled in to stuff the ball past a diving McKeller for her first career goal as well to put the Pride up 5-0 with 16 minutes to play.
FDU would score two goals in the last four minutes of the game, to make the final score 5-2. Tonya Hipsman got behind the Pride defense and put a shot into the vacant net for the first score, and Amanda Wheeler finished the scoring on a direct kick from 30 yards out that snuck in just under the crossbar.
The win helped the Pride bounce back from a disappointing 2-1 loss to Columbia on Friday, a game in which the Pride took 19 shots but couldn’t find the net. It was Hofstra’s first loss of the season.
“There’s a certain level of quiet confidence that goes throughout the team; that we’re not going to let an upsetting loss affect the next game,” Riddiough said. “We didn’t dwell on it, and we just worked hard to prepare for Sunday and it worked out for us.”
The Pride are next in action on Saturday at 5:30 when they take on Fordham at home in its last game before CAA play begins on September 28th.