By Danny Lovi, Special to The Chronicle
The Hofstra men’s soccer team took an early 1-0 lead, but could not hang on, losing to conference foe Northeastern 3-2 Wednesday night.
Hofstra was aggressive out of the gate, getting a few good looks at goal in the early minutes. Sophomore midfielder Florian Popp had a wide-open shot in the ninth minute, but whizzed it just past the left post. It was an opportunity missed, a theme that would plague Hofstra for the entire game.
In the thirty-fourth minute, senior forward Brett Carrington had a golden opportunity to score, chipping the ball right over the goalkeeper’s head. Right before the ball crossed the goal line however, Northeastern defenseman Don Anding got a foot on the ball, saving his team from going down what would have been 2-1 at the time.
Hofstra also had a goal negated early on, due to an offsides call, which would have put the Pride up 2-0. The Pride had many more opportunities to score, outshooting Northeastern 17-9, but could not capitalize.
Sophomore goalkeeper Roberto Pellegrini was frustrated by the missed opportunities.
“I see so many chances that we have that we don’t finalize,” Pellegrini said. “It’s small things that change the whole game. If we pulled in the second goal, the whole game would be different.”
The momentum seemed to shift in Northeastern’s favor after the goal-saving play by Anding. Just a minute later, Northeastern scored its second goal, taking advantage of a Hofstra defensive lapse. No Hofstra player put pressure on forward Dante Marini who had plenty of space to maneuver along the top of the box, striking the ball into the back of the net.
Hofstra head coach Richard Nuttall thought the defense just got confused.
“It was just a miscommunication,” Nuttall said. “There was no depth in the defense there.”
Northeastern scored its first goal in the twenty-fourth minute, when forward Josh Semerene got past junior Stephan Barea, who typically plays midfield, but started on defense for the injured freshman Tommi Kjartansson. Northeastern expanded its advantage when forward Mike Kennedy scored the team’s third goal in the eighty-second minute. He scored on a free kick just outside the box, bending the ball right over the heads of Hofstra’s five-man wall.
“Credit to Northeastern, they are a strong team,” Nuttall said. “They’ve got some skill. You saw the great free kick in the end to kill us off.”
Hofstra brought the game close for a brief couple of minutes, scoring late on a header by sophomore defender Shaun Foster. He was the second defender to score for Hofstra, the first goal coming in the fourteenth minute on a chip shot from sophomore Tyler Botte.
Hofstra did not have enough time to put in the equalizer though, falling to 2-3 in conference play. The loss breaks a five-way tie for fourth place in the Colonial Athletic Association standings. With the loss, Hofstra drops below .500 and lose consecutive games for the first time this season. The team looks to rebound on the road against Delaware on Sunday in another conference matchup.

Sophomore defender Shaun Foster (4) sends a long ball in hopes of a quick Hofstra counter-attack. (Cody Heintz/The Chronicle)