By Stacy Troiano
In its last tune-up before CAA play begins, the Lady Pride marched north for an afternoon contest against the Wildcats of New Hampshire on Wednesday. Fresh off a tough two goal loss to Rutgers a week ago, Hofstra brought that “A” game that coach Abby Morgan preached about last week and rolled over New Hampshire 9-6.
It was again the experienced core of seniors leading the scoring attack for the Pride, as senior midfielders Becky Thorn and Casey McGrath each tallied two goals and an assist a piece. The Hofstra defense turned out its strongest performance of the young season, allowing its lowest number of goals on the year.
McGrath got the Pride on the board just 30 seconds into the game after freshman midfielder K’Leigh Vanaman won the opening draw control and found McGrath for her 16th goal of the year. McGrath notched team-leading number 17 less than five minutes later to make the score 2-0.
The Wildcats would get on the board at the 21:14 mark on a free position shot from Sarah Von Bargen, but Hofstra would break it open after that.
The Pride rattled off five straight goals and six of the last seven in the first half. Sophomore midfielder Lauren Whitcomb started the run on an assist from Thorn, and 30 seconds later Thorn found the back of the net herself, assisted by McGrath. After sophomore attacker Alicia Recco added the third goal of the run, Thorn struck again for her second of the game and 15th on the year. Whitcomb closed out the 5-0 run with her second of the game to give Hofstra the 7-1 lead, somewhat foreign territory for the Pride, who have found themselves in holes early in games this season.
“We played very well together and had a big lead to work with for once as opposed to being on the other end of it,” Morgan said.
Each team would score one more in the final four minutes of the half, and the Pride took an 8-2 lead into the locker room. Five different players found the back of the net in the first half for the Pride, and Hofstra had a 15-6 shot advantage in the opening 30 minutes.
The Wildcats held Hofstra without a shot in the first 15 minutes of the second half, but were only able to cut the lead to 8-5 in that time as junior goalie Maisie Osteen was strong in net, making four saves during the stretch to hold the lead for the Pride.
Thorn fired off the first shot of the half for Hofstra at the 14:23 mark, and seconds later freshman attacker Ashley Jones put one in to stretch the lead to 9-5. Von Bargen scored her second of the game with 13:00 left to make it 9-6, and it would stay that way for the Hofstra victory.
Osteen finished with 10 saves for the Pride, and she and the defense held New Hampshire to just one goal in the final 15-plus minutes of the game to secure the win.
“On defense we were very composed and were able to rattle them a little bit,” Morgan said. “We just let them make mistakes and turn the ball over and it worked in our favor.”
Along with Thorn and McGrath, Whitcomb tallied two goals of her own and a game-high four draw controls in the win. Senior attacker Kim Hillier’s 41-game point scoring streak came to an end as the Wildcats held her without a shot in the game.
The win boosts the Pride’s record to 3-4 on the season as they prepare to start conference play this weekend. They have played an extremely competitive non-conference schedule to open the season including three games against top 20 opponents Vanderbilt, Denver and Rutgers.
Morgan said she is happy with her team’s performance and improvements so far in the year and is looking forward to CAA play.
“I’m confident with how we’re coming into the conference and in the lessons we’ve learned and situations we’ve been in,” she said. “We’ve been in close games, we’ve been up, we’ve been down-basically every situation you could run into, and I think if we take those lessons and bring them into conference play that we will be successful.”
Hofstra takes on Drexel at home on Sunday in a 1:00 p.m. contest that opens CAA play for both teams.