By Doug Bonjour
Entering Saturday, Dave Cohen and the Hofstra Pride Football team found themselves atop the Colonial Athletic Conference standings with a 6-0 record and a national ranking that put them among the nation’s top 10 teams. Previously, senior running back Kareem Huggins continued his stellar season with a career-best performance of 186 yards rushing and junior quarterback Bryan Savage connected with senior wide receiver Charles Sullivan at will, completing 12 passes for 184 yards.
Yet even with an undefeated record and one of the top offensive trios in the conference, doubts still hovered over the Pride and whether they were true to their fast start. Their six wins had come against teams with a combined 16-28 record, leaving critics salivating for a game against a top opponent.
On Saturday, they finally faced that top opponent and the result left fans with a loss of pride for Hofstra. Behind the rocket arm of senior quarterback Ricky Santos and a shutdown defense, 11th-ranked New Hampshire routed 10th-ranked Hofstra 40-3 at Shuart Stadium. The loss was Hofstra’s worst since 1992, when Montana delivered a 50-6 thumping to the Pride.
“I don’t think there was any question on who the better team tonight was,” said Hofstra Head Coach Dave Cohen, following a performance in which he saw his offense held to only a field goal and his defense allow four touchdowns in the first-half alone.
“They not only beat us in all three phases of offense, defense and special teams, but also in coaching,” he said.
Cohen, who expressed his concern over turnovers the team last week, watched as Hofstra’s inability to hold onto the football doomed their chances of running with New Hampshire.
“You can’t go out and lose the turnover ratio 4 to 0. From the defensive perspective we didn’t create turnovers and from an offensive perspective we gave them four,” explained a disappointed Cohen.
Interception problems continued for Savage, as New Hampshire picked him off three times, with one being returned 66 yards for a touchdown by senior free safety Jeff Pammer.
Savage ended the game completing 31 of 50 passes for 325 yards and three costly interceptions.
Along with the turnovers, special teams proved to be another problem for the Pride. The struggles for senior kicker Rob Zarrilli continued, as he missed field goal attempts from 26 and 35 yards. Zarrilli, a member of the Football Championship Subdivision Preseason All-America team, is now 10-for-19 on attempts this season.
Following the performance, Cohen expressed his dissatisfaction with the special teams unit.
“I have not been happy with our lack of consistency in kicking field goals as well as kickoffs. It’s an area where we really had high expectations coming into the season and I’m not very happy with where that’s at right now,” he said.
If the Pride want to revert back to its winning ways, they will have to regain solid play from their defense; a unit which allowed only 16 points combined in the prior two games.
Santos, whom Cohen called the “best quarterback I’ve faced in my career,” shredded the Hofstra secondary for 262 yards and four touchdown passes in just over two quarters. Santos, a winner of the 2006 Walter Payton Award for the top player in the FCS Division, passed the ball at will on the Pride, completing 19 of 23 pass attempts.
“We did not win any match-ups on the perimeter. Their perimeter people got the better of our perimeter people. They made plays and we didn’t,” explained Cohen.
Choosing to look toward future success, Cohen will begin preparations for next week’s game versus Villanova, rather than dwell extensively on defeat from Saturday.
“Unless it’s a problem that could come up schematically or technically in future games, we’re not going to spend a lot of time on that tape. It’s not a way to grow or learn,” noted Cohen.
The Pride will travel to face Villanova, 4-3 (2-2) for a 3:30 p.m. kickoff on Saturday.
The looming scoreboard tells the tale as Bryan Savage and the Pride were forced to walk off the field for the first time in 2007 on the losing end. (Sean M. Gates)