The Hofstra women’s soccer team claimed a 2-1 victory, their first in five matches, against the UNC-Wilmington (UNCW) Seahawks on an exceptionally wet and windy evening on Oct. 14. It was a pivotal Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) game with playoff implications for both teams, and the Pride emerged on top, one point away from a playoff spot in the CAA.
“When you get to this time of the season when players start realizing there’s only two games left or this could be it, they give a little more of an impetus and that’s what we saw tonight,” said Hofstra head coach Simon Riddiough. “The girls dug in deep.”
The opening minutes of the game were under difficult conditions, but the rain coming down hard didn’t stop the Pride from getting the scoring started early. Dagny Run Petursdottir scored the first goal in the eighth minute of the game. The freshman’s third goal of the season came off a rebound shot from teammate Wiktoria Fronc.
Two shot attempts quickly followed the goal, including a breakaway by Ellen Halseth that just went wide of the net. Goalkeeper Skylar Kuzmich registered her first of three saves by corralling Seahawks midfielder Morgan Nanni’s shot after a corner kick.
The Pride continued the pressure with two more shots, one by Thorhildur Thorhallsdottir when she stole the ball in front of the box, but the shot went wide right.
The Seahawks capitalized on a mistake by Kuzmich when her pass was intercepted and UNCW player Morgan Nanni caught her off guard to chip in the tying goal in the 28th minute. Hofstra retook the lead ten minutes later when Leah Iglesias crossed the ball in from the sideline and Thorhallsdottir headed in the go-ahead goal for her sixth goal of the season.
Hofstra out-paced the Seahawks eight shots to three and made sure to keep the ball out of the visiting team’s possession.
The Pride repeatedly tested the opposing defense with two consecutive corner kicks that yielded shots that went just wide of the net. Meanwhile, Kuzmich stayed on top of UNCW’s attacks. The Pride played ball control as they ate the clock to secure the win in the waning moments of the second half.
The last ten minutes became more physical as the Seahawks tried to tie the game and come out of the game with a point in CAA standings. On top of that, the rain began picking up and added to the pressure of winning the fixture. In the last thirty seconds of the game, Makaya Parham of the Seahawks sent in a cross that was carried by the wind and landed right in Kuzmich’s hands, sealing the game for the Pride.
Both teams had four shots on goal, but the Pride more than doubled the total shots fifteen to six.
The Pride is now 7-6-3 overall and 2-3-2 in conference, and they have two games left before playoffs against teams ahead of them in the CAA standings. Hofstra will be playing the College of Charleston on Sunday, Oct. 16, in another critical conference matchup.
Photo courtesy of Evan Bernstein