The Hofstra women’s soccer team extended their win streak to five against the Drexel University Dragons with a 2-1 overtime victory on Wednesday, Sept. 26.
The game-winning goal came off the foot of Miri Taylor, assisted by Lucy Shepherd just 1:04 into the overtime period. Taylor’s goal was her third of the season, as well as her second game-winning overtime goal this year. This was the first Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) competition that Hofstra has faced this season, which moves them to 1-0 on the year in conference play.
This game was by no means perfect for the Pride, who entered the contest on a four-game win streak touting a 6-3 record. Drexel, sitting at 4-3-2, scored the only goal in the first half at the 40:35 mark while blanking the Pride’s offense for much of the contest. Drexel goalie Libby Baeza had a lot to do with shutting down the Pride in the first half, posting six of her nine total saves on the night.
“Their goalie was fantastic,” said Hofstra head coach Simon Riddiough. “She made three or four really good saves.”
The Pride were able to establish a rhythm in the 13th minute of play during the second half when Brianna Doran netted the first goal of her Hofstra career. Both sides then began to turn up their defensive tenacity, as neither team was able to find the net for the rest of regulation. Both teams had several opportunities throughout the course of the game to add to the score, but shots were missing and they both had to work to maintain possession of the ball in their opponent’s territory.
“After the first goal we started to play really well, but the first five minutes we were sloppy,” Riddiough said. “Drexel played a 4-4-2 and we had to adjust a little bit in our 4-3-3, so maybe the girls weren’t 100% comfortable with that.”
In the last five minutes of regulation, both teams tried picking up the pace and pushing the ball any time they had it in order to score before any extra time was needed, but neither was successful.
Heading into overtime, Drexel looked like the more tired of the two. Once Hofstra got the ball, they never looked back en route to Taylor’s game-winning goal a little over a minute in to keep their streak alive.
“Fair play to Drexel, they scored early and made it difficult from then on … we knew it was going to be a long night’” Riddiough said.
Hofstra now moves to 7-3 on the season and 1-0 in CAA play. They also remain unbeaten at home this season, where they are currently 4-0. Hofstra tends to have success whenever they play Drexel, boasting a 20-4 all-time record against their CAA rival.
Image courtesy of Adam Flash
