The No. 16 Hofstra University men’s soccer team defeated the UNC-Wilmington (UNCW) 3-0 to extend their win streak to five and unbeaten run to six at Hofstra Soccer Stadium on Saturday, Sept. 14. The reigning Coastal Athletic Association (CAA) champions now move to 2-0 in conference and 5-0-1 overall.
“I thought we were brilliant in the first half with all of our main guys out there firing on all cylinders,” said Hofstra head coach Richard Nuttall. “[The substitutes] did a good job, kept a clean sheet against UNCW who are a good team…but I thought we steamrolled them… it was a Hofstra win today.”
Hofstra started the match off three minutes in with a goal by Jacob Woznicki made on an overhead kick off a corner kick that was deflected within the box. This was Woznicki’s fifth goal of the season in just six games, four of which came off crosses.
“Some of [the set-piece preparation] is repetition and some of it is knowing your players and the skill set they have,” Nuttall said. “We’ve got the long throw [in] with Eoin [Farrell]… then we’ve got great people in the air and we just work off that. It’s our strength, so why not use it?”
The Pride’s second goal of the day came just shortly after in the 15th minute of the match as Roc Carles drew a penalty due to a late tackle in the box by UNCW’s Valter Salavuo and Farrell calmly converted to the bottom right. This was Farrell’s second goal of the season.
Hofstra’s first-half onslaught did not stop there, as 43 minutes into the match the Pride scored a third goal. Pablo Hempelmann-Perez flicked the ball to Jon Jelercic, who then whipped it to Lennon Gill. Gill headed it in, and this was his first post-recovery goal after recovering from a knee injury.
“[Gill] is a talented man who’s been out of the game for two years,” Nuttall said. “I think the goal will give him a little bit of a boost in confidence, but I think there’s much more upside to see from him. He was great today, he was red hot.”
After a scoreless, but defensively compact second half, the Pride attained their fourth clean sheet in six games, putting them among the top defenses in the country and securing their undefeated record thus far.
“I don’t want to be cliche, but it’s an 11-man defense and you see how hard the forwards work to dictate where the ball is going and dictate the time and direction of the ball and everybody else follows suit,” Nuttall said. “Our backline has been doing really well and so has Filippo [Dadone]. I’m ultra-pleased with the clean sheet.”
Hofstra’s next game was at home against the University of New Hampshire on Tuesday, Sept. 17. Kickoff was at 7 p.m.
Photos courtesy of Julia Boesch
