By Gio Annatelli - SPECIAL TO THE CHRONICLE
Hofstra lost a heartbreaker in the pouring rain on Wednesday, falling to Delaware 2-1 in double overtime at Grant Stadium. This ended Hofstra’s five-game winning streak.
Delaware’s Guillermo Delgado scored with just 16 seconds left in double overtime to get the win for the Fightin’ Blue Hens in a Colonial Athletic Association matchup.
Hofstra was the first to strike, with senior forward Maid Memic scoring 15 yards out, beating Delaware goalkeeper Borja Barbero in the 20th minute. The assist came from sophomore Joseph Holland, who leads the CAA in assists with eight.
Memic continued to stay hot, after being named the league’s co-player of the week on Monday. This was his fourth-straight game with a goal. Memic has six goals this season, with three consecutive game winners versus Elon, Wake Forest and William & Mary.
Memic has 26 goals for his career here at Hofstra. He trails Alan Bodenstein by one goal for fifth on the all-time scoring list for the Hofstra Pride.
Not only a big game for Memic, it was also an impressive day for junior goalkeeper Patric Pray. Even while letting in two goals, Pray had a career high in saves with nine. Pray let up his first goal since Sept. 14 versus Darmouth. He had four straight shutouts and sophomore goalkepper Brian McPartland had a clean sheet versus Vermont.
Hofstra extended its scoreless streak to 520 minutes before Delaware’s Kyle Bruno tied the game up in the 48th minute. Delgado had the assist, sending a cross over to Bruno for the finish seven yards out.
The Blue Hens dominated on the shot count with 22-8, and also had the games only three shots in overtime. Hofstra cut its fouls from last game from 22 to just seven. The Pride also walked away with no yellow cards, while Delaware had three.
Pray was sharp in the first half, having made six saves for Hofstra to take the lead going into the half, before being broken just 2:47 into the second half.
Pray’s previous career high was seven saves versus CAA opponent Elon in a 2-0 Pride victory. But Delgado, who was the 2013 CAA rookie of the year, scored his league-leading ninth goal of the season, converting Ben Simpson’s pass from five yards out by crashing a shot off the post and into the back of the net for the victory. Hofstra is 14-12-1 in the all-time series against Delaware.
The team quickly forgot about their loss to the Blue Hens and bounced back to beat James Madison 2-1 on the road at University Park, in another CAA matchup. This is Hofstra’s sixth win in seven games and they improve to 3-1 in CAA play and 8-4-2 overall. James Madison falls to 1-2-1 in the conference and 5-6-3 overall.
Freshman Danny Elliott scored off of sophomore Rory Murphy’s corner kick in the 28th minute. This is Elliott’s second goal in just three games. All of his goals have come in conference games after netting his first collegiate score against Elon and then scoring again in the 3-0 rout verse William & Mary.
Forward Maid Memic added a well-needed insurance goal in the 33rd minute off of a penalty kick. Memic is two-for-two in penalty kicks this season after also converting one against Wake Forest.
This is Memic’s fifth-straight game finding the back of the net, after scoring in every game since Oct. 4. It is his 27th career goal and now ties for fifth all-time in program history. Memic also led the game in shots with four on the day.
James Madison’s Eric Schmidt scored in the 80th minute to end Hofstra’s shutout bid and to also cut the lead in half. However, Hofstra’s defense would shut it down after that, blocking shots by Josh Grant and Jonathan Barden and also stopping a scoring opportunity in the 88th minute off a corner kick.
Goalkeeper Patric Pray had two saves, only facing three shots on goal while Hofstra had the advantage with nine shots on goal.
This concluded Hofstra’s stretch of four road games in five contests. The Pride will return home for some conference play on Wednesday, looking to go on another winning streak against Drexel at 7 p.m.
