On a humid, trying day at Hofstra Soccer Stadium, the Pride’s impressive early season run hit a rough spot.
The Hofstra women’s soccer team fell to the Army West Point Black Knights on Saturday afternoon, 3-1. Army was not only winless coming into the day, but also had only scored one time through their first six games.
The Pride struck first, but Army endured an onslaught of shots to eventually capitalize on some well placed redirections, and mistakes in net from both Hofstra goalies.
“I thought we were poor, the application of our team was average,” said head coach Simon Riddiough. “I think three people showed up out of eleven, and when that happens you can’t win.”
Hofstra controlled a decent amount of possession early on, but no team held a clear advantage for much of a back-and-forth first 25 minutes.
The Pride was able to rip off some decent shots, including some from beyond the penalty box that didn’t quite have the power to pass Army’s goal-minder Jordan Cassalia.
But in the 29th minute it was Maya Watkins playing a pinpoint cross from Jill Mulholland into the right side of the net from point blank range for Hofstra’s only score.
Watkins’ first collegiate goal culminated some of the hype for the freshman whose high school stats (121G, 75A) and work ethic gained praise from her veteran teammates.
“[Maya is] finally showing why we thought she was a highly recruited player,” said Riddiough. “She’s got a lot of potential. She still needs to work in certain aspects of her game…but I hope that’s just the start of things for Maya.”
Army notched only three shots in the first period, after much errant passing in the offensive third. But a misplay helped them breakthrough.
Army’s only goal-scorer coming into the day, Clare Shea, received a bit of a break when a deflection landed right on her foot inside the penalty box. Shea’s position caught starting goalie Ashley Wilson off guard when she ripped her shot. Wilson dove to her right and stopped the ball, but found herself behind the goal line, tying the game up 1-1 in the 37th minute.
After the break, Army continued to face many Pride shots, but Army responded with quality over quantity.
The Black Knights started their second half momentum swing when Lauren McGovern had a 1-on-1 chance against second half goalie Friederike Mehring. Mehring, though, smacked away the shot from just feet away from her face on an incredible stop by the senior.
Less than 30 seconds later though, Mehring couldn’t find the same luck, as Madison McGinn buried the ball to the left of a dive in the 52nd to put Army ahead for the first time all season, 2-1.
Forward Kerri Baum and star midfielder Jill Mulholland were very active in Army’s half of the field in the second. Baum set up shots for her teammates including Mulholland and Noriana Radwan, who tied for the team lead in that category with six each.
Despite finishing with a 24-7 shot advantage over Army, the Black Knights added one more when Nicole Bautista found the corner of the net past Mehring from over 20 yards out.
Hofstra peppered several more shots on net, but Cassalia found her way into perfect position each time. She rounded out the day with nine saves, and brought the game to its final score of 3-1.
“I hope they didn’t take this too personally,” said Riddiough. “We didn’t play what we are good at. We made silly decisions at critical times and that’s not Hofstra.”
The loss drops Hofstra to 4-2-1, their first loss since falling to a then-#2 ranked Penn State team on August 21st. Army’s first win placed them at 1-6. The loss was Hofstra’s first multi-goal loss on home turf since October 3, 2014 vs. James Madison.
Riddiough spoke to his team for several minutes following the loss, and clearly expects more when his team returns to action at home against Fairleigh Dickinson on Wednesday at 7 p.m.
“We’ve criticized, we’ve critiqued everything, we move on now, and now it’s all about Wednesday.”
