After rolling through a historic regular season with a 14-1-2 record, the Hofstra men’s soccer team now enters a new season: the playoffs. With the No. 1 seed in the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) Championship tournament, the Pride also gets the advantage of having the home crowd behind them.
“We got to keep going and understand that this our home field and our fans are the 12th man,” said Hofstra head coach Richard Nuttall. “We’ve enjoyed playing in front of our fans and they’ve been very vocal and really have driven us on.”
The Pride play today in the first semifinal game against No. 4 Drexel University. Afterwards, No. 2 Northeastern University will face No. 3 Elon University in the second semifinal game.
Hofstra beat Drexel 2-1 earlier this season but the Dragons ended with more shots on goal in the game, eight to six, a rarity for Hofstra.
“We want to create more chances, [Drexel] limited us during that game,” Nuttall said. “They got several skillful players out wide and one in the middle that can do some damage, so our one-to-one defenders [have] got to be good. We got to impose ourselves onto their structure.”
One advantage for the Pride is the home field, where the Pride is 8-0-1 this season.
“If you look at our record the last five years at home, it is very difficult for teams to play here,” Nuttall said. “We are used to the surface and we are on the surface everyday so it is an advantage without a doubt.”
Since the 2015 season, Hofstra holds a 39-7-4 record at Hofstra Soccer Stadium. This year, the tournament was slated to be at James Madison University (JMU). The tournament location switched from JMU to Hofstra this past week after JMU announced its withdrawal from the CAA. The decision left JMU, winners of the last three CAA tournaments, ineligible for the tournament.
JMU, a team that has defeated Hofstra in the CAA tournament on penalties the past three years, is not eligible for any conference tournaments this year. During the regular season, the Pride defeated JMU 1-0.
“You learn from the past and our experience, well, we didn’t finish the job these past three years whether you like it or not, we lost on penalties and that’s life,” Nuttall said. “JMU is no longer in the mix and what’s gone is gone and it’s a new challenge.”
Throughout the season, the Pride prevailed. Riding a 13-match unbeaten streak, Hofstra has climbed the national rankings to now hold a No. 13 rank in the nation, tying the highest rank in school history.
The reason for Hofstra being tough to play? Nuttall breaks it down to four words: Togetherness. Energy. Intensity. Talent.
The high level of play was noticed by the conference as Hofstra picked up multiple honors from the CAA this season. George O’Malley earned CAA Defensive Player of the Year, Mason Tatafu was named CAA Rookie of the Year and Richard Nuttall was named CAA Coach of the Year.
Ryan Carmichael, Matthew Vowinkel, Hendrik Hebbeker, Wessel Speel and O’Malley were named to the All-CAA First Team. Storm Strongin, Stefan Mason and Tatafu were named to All-CAA Third Team. Lorenzo Selini and Tatafu were named to the All-Rookie Team.
The awards are nice, but now the focus has shifted to obtaining a championship, something Hofstra hasn’t achieved since the 2015 season.
“Every game is different and this next game, the playoffs, it’s just different and what’s gone in the past this season means nothing now,” Nuttall said.
With the home crowd behind them, Hofstra has the pieces in place to become the champions of the CAA once again.
“All three teams that we are up against can win this tournament,” Nuttall said. “We know that if we don’t play well we will get beat so we have to believe in our abilities, be confident and work hard.”
Photo Courtesy of Hofstra Athletics
