By Nick Bond
With all the hoopla surrounding Hofstra hosting Obama-McCain: Round Three, many things have been lost in the shuffle, including the possible resurgence of our men’s soccer team.
Although they walked away from their last two games with only four points, it was how close they came to getting all six that is what should have the campus buzzing.
Led by superstar forward Brett Carrington and sensational sophomore Johannes Grahn, who scored two and three goals in the respective games, the Pride trounced the Delaware Fighting Blue Hens 3-0 and drew with the Dragons of Drexel, 2-2.
With five goals in 2 games, the offense seems finally to be reaching its full potential, finding the back of the net more times then the last seven games combined.
Now, to act as though the 3-0 drubbing of Delaware was unexpected would be mildly na’ve, since Delaware is perhaps the only team in the entire Colonial Athletic Association to find themselves playing poorer than Hofstra.
Despite the relative rottenness of their opponent, the complete dominance that was exhibited by the Pride is certainly something to build on for the Pride.
The men began the game strong, netting their first goal only four and a half minutes into the first half, Rory McCrea getting the assist on Carrington’s fourth goal of the season.
The Pride continued to roll, scoring again in the 35th minute, this time on a Grahn goal with a little help from Justin Flood. Flood continued the sharing, assisting on Carrington’s second goal of the game-his fifth of the season-in the 65th minute.
The Pride’s solid play in their subsequent game, a quasi-home game-played at Adelphi as the Hofstra Soccer Stadium was not available because of the debate-helped to build on the performances of the previous game. Grahn seemed to finally get back on track, scoring his third and fourth goals of the season-and more importantly perhaps-showcased his ability to single-handedly keep his team in the game with his superlative scoring skills.
Those that were not fortunate enough to be able to make it to Adelphi for the game missed quite a barnburner as the Pride, for the second consecutive game, struck first, scoring only 13 minutes into the first half, this time on the cranium of Grahn, who assisted by Carrington, headed the ball past Drexel goalie Cory Robertson.
The Pride were able to maintain the lead into the locker room, but, perhaps as a result the unfamiliarity of playing a home game in a strange stadium, the Pride saw their lead quickly dissipate, as the Dragons scored goals in the 60th and the 65th minutes to jump ahead in the first part of the second half.
Enter “Golden Boy” Johannes Grahn, who-with the Jamal Neptune-helped save the game, and perhaps the season, for the Pride.
With these two games under their belts, the Pride look to make progress toward the top of the table in the CAA, as they look forward to a home game against Old Dominion on Saturday and an away game against George Mason next Wednesday.
If the Pride can find a way to win these two games, they may be well on their way to a berth in the end of the year CAA tournament.