HEMPSTEAD, NY — The Hofstra men’s soccer team wrapped up their regular season on Tuesday, Nov. 5 with a 3-0 win over Columbia University at the Hofstra Soccer Stadium.
Petter Soelberg netted two goals in the contest, leading the Pride to a commanding win over the Lions. Hofstra improved to 9-6-2 overall and remain unbeaten in their last six games.
The Pride dominated the first half as they controlled the ball in the attacking zone the entire way and outshot the Lions 9-1. Columbia’s lone scoring chance came five minutes into the game and resulted in an easy save by Hofstra goalkeeper Alex Ashton.
From there, it was all Hofstra Pride.
Soelberg scored the first goal of the game at 5:45 to give the Pride an early 1-0 lead. He received a pass out in front of the net from Matthew Vowinkel and blasted one past Columbia goalkeeper Matthew Goodman.
Hofstra continued to put shots on net and did not let Columbia gain any momentum. At 26:19, Soelberg struck again to put the Pride up 2-0 over the Lions. He took a Shane Salmon pass and ripped a shot into the lower right corner of the net for his sixth goal of the season.
The Pride defense was also locked in and allowed only one Columbia shot through the first 45 minutes.
Hofstra came out of the break roaring again and continued to put a great amount of pressure on the Lions defense. The Pride defense stood strong as well, as Columbia could only register one more shot for the rest of the game.
Hendrik Hebbeker put the finishing touches on Columbia by scoring his third goal of the season at 67:45. Hebbeker made a nice move to get around his defender and curled a shot past Goodman and into the top right corner of the goal to put Hofstra up 3-0.
“Our energy for 80 to 85 percent of the game was awesome tonight,” said Hofstra head coach Richard Nuttal. “We had a little lull just before halftime and a little lull right after, but then we ramped it back up again and scored three great goals.”
The Pride showed tremendous teamwork as they spread the ball around to everyone on the field and forced Columbia to play back in their zone the entire way. Hofstra’s defense allowed only two total shots, while the offense recorded 17.
“We got a lot of good information from the coaches before the game so we knew where the pockets were and we kept working as a team and we figured it out all together,” Soelberg said. “We talk a lot about defense and how it comes first and that we have to do the work first for us to go forward and score goals, but it’s a team effort at the end of the day.”
No. 3 Hofstra is set to play No. 6 University of Delaware in the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) quarterfinals on Friday, Nov. 7 at 1 p.m.
“It was important to finish off the regular season with a good and steady win,” Soelberg said. “It was a good performance with three good goals and a clean sheet so now we look forward to Friday.
The Pride will look to build off this dominating performance with postseason approaching.
“The important thing now is rest. We’ve got to rest these guys because it’s a grind now,” Nuttall said. “We’re just gonna do the best possible job in making sure we’re healthy, fit and well rested.”
