By Nick Bond
The Pride’s men soccer team continued with their two-season-long road woes with a 2-0 away loss to the Owls of Temple University.
This loss was the 17th time in the last 21 road games that the Pride have not come away with a win-a disturbing trend, even when one takes into account the relative youth of the team.
This game saw the Pride give up two goals to one player, freshman Tyler Witmer, continuing another disturbing trend, as this was the second time in as many weeks that they allowed one player to score twice, Virginia’s Tony Tchani being the first, doing so in last week’s 4-2 defeat in Charlottesville.
Thankfully for the Pride, this is a non-conference game, but if they have any hope of doing anything this season, they must find a way to stop individual star players.
This is not necessarily as easy as it sounds, as soccer, perhaps more than any other sport, can be dominated by a singular talent-just ask Virginia Tech what happens when Brett Carrington is on his game-but with some creative, team-oriented defense, they may be able to stop Golden Hurricane star Eric DeFreitas who leads his team with two goals, and will lead the University of Tulsa against the Pride in Tulsa on Friday.
Also awaiting the Pride is SMU All-World player Paulo da Silva, who has began the season on a tear, accumulating 12 points in 6 games with 5 goals on a 31.2 percent shooting percentage.
Paulo da Silva is not the only part of the Mustangs that the Pride must worry about, since the Mustangs are the number two team in the nation.
There is, however, history on the side of the Pride, as they are 12-4-1 in their last 17 games against teams in the Top 10, with the four losses coming away from home, which is especially advantageous: the game will be played right here in Hempstead at noon on Sunday.
If the Pride can find a way to do so, they may just be able to turn this season around.