By Alex Hyman, Staff Writer

The Hofstra Pride Men’s soccer team had a Jekyll and Hyde weekend at the Inaria Classic according to head coach Richard Nuttall. 

“Friday, everyone played well while Sunday, no one had a real good game” Nuttall said. 

Friday night, the Pride traveled to Hamilton, New York to battle Colgate University. The Red Raiders entered the game undefeated while receiving national attention. 

This stood as a nonissue for the Pride as sophomore goalkeeper Roberto Pellegrini recorded his second clean sheet of the season resulting in a 1-0 Pride victory. 

After a scoreless first half, the Pride took advantage of a corner kick in the fifty-second minute. 

Sophomore midfielder Chris Griebsch, who has been the mastermind of the Pride’s offensive attack, sent a beautiful cross into the box, which was headed home by junior midfielder Stephan Barea. 

In the sixtieth minute, sophomore defender Shaun Foster cleared the ball away from danger and thwarted what turned out to be the best scoring opportunity for Colgate. 

“It was fantastic” Nuttall said. “It was a great team effort, we were focused, and it was a wonderful performance”. 

The team’s morale was high heading into Sunday afternoon as the team traveled to Ithaca, New York to face the Big Red of Cornell. 

It did not take long for the Big Red to get on the scoreboard though as freshman Conor Goepel gave Cornell a 1-0 lead in the fourth minute. 

Eight minutes later, The Big Red added another goal when sophomore Ben Williams found senior Chase Aaronson who slotted his chance in the bottom corner, giving Cornell a 2-0 lead. 

A third goal was added early in the second half, which put things out of sight for the Pride and remained to be the final score line. 

After going down early, Nuttall said, “we were deflated emotionally”. He also added, “Cornell worked very hard, they kept the tempo high”. 

The Pride did not have many scoring chances against Cornell and recorded just three shots on net. 

Foster, along with junior midfielder Mike Annarumma and freshman midfielder Heidar Emilsson all recorded one shot on goal. 

The Pride’s record falls to 2-3 after a split weekend and has back-to-back home games with conference play starting this weekend. 

“Our preparation changes slightly, we have to work on our style of play,” said Nuttall. 

The Pride hosts UNC-Wilmington on Saturday night and Fordham University on Tuesday night.