The No. 14 ranked Hofstra men’s soccer team officially clinched a Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) tournament berth on Saturday, Oct. 30. The Pride defeated the Elon University Phoenix 2-0 at Rudd Field behind a brace by Hendrik Hebbeker.
This win was also the team’s fourth in a row, and the win continued the team’s unbeaten streak going back to Sept. 14 to 12 games. This was also the team’s fourth shutout victory in a row, all of them with Wessel Speel playing in goal.
Hofstra’s win clinched their tenth-straight CAA tournament berth, which will take place Nov. 11 and Nov. 14 in Harrisonburg, VA.
Hofstra got the scoring started at the 18:15 mark. Hebbeker forced a turnover in the Elon box and dribbled in before putting one off the right boot past the left shoulder of Phoenix keeper Peter Wentzel.
The Pride doubled the lead in the second half after Elon turned over the ball in their own end, which was picked up by Roc Carles. Carles passed it over to Hebbeker who dribbled inside the box, stutter stepped, beat the defender to his left and put it in off the inside of the far post. This was Hebbeker’s second goal of the game, marking his first ever multi-goal game for Hofstra.
Speel made three saves in the second half, the only three saves he had to make the entire match, while Wentzel made five saves in the match. This is the third consecutive fully played game where Speel shut out an opponent, and the fourth consecutive game he played in with a shutout, but not for all 90 minutes.
Hofstra outshot Elon 16-7, with seven shots on goal for the Pride compared Elon’s three. Hofstra also had an advantage over the Phoenix in corner kicks with six compared to Elon’s three.
The Pride are now 14-1-1 overall for the season, with a CAA record of 5-1-1. They are now one win shy of tying a program record with 15 wins, which goes all the way back to the 1968 team, which finished 15-2-1. Elon has dropped down to 7-7-2 overall this season with a 3-2-2 record in CAA play. In the all-time series, Hofstra is 6-0-1 in games against Elon. Hofstra also finished the season with a road record of 6-1-1.
The Pride end the regular season at home on Saturday, Nov. 6. They take on the UNC-Wilmington Seahawks at Hofstra Soccer Stadium as they look to win the CAA regular season championship for the first time since 2016. The match begins at 12:00 p.m.
Photo Courtesy of Adam Flash/The Hofstra Chronicle
