HARRISONBURG, VA. – The Hofstra men’s soccer team is headed back to the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) semifinals after a 2-1 win over the University of Delaware Blue Hens on Friday, Nov. 8, at Sentara Park. It was a tied score up until the 85th minute, when Matthew Vowinkel scored the game-winning goal.
“We battled hard, showed a lot of grit and determination,” said Hofstra head coach Richard Nuttall. “[We] gradually got on top of them in the second half I thought. Vowinkel put one away with a great assist by Hendrik Hebbeker, and I really want to mention George O’Malley and the back four for their resilience as well, they were tremendous.”
The game looked like it was going to go into overtime until Vowinkel received a great pass by Hebbeker and put one in the back-left corner of the goal for his 13th goal of the season. Coming into the season, Vowinkel had 10 goals during his whole career at Hofstra.
“Much like the rest of the team, he was battling, but you can always know that you can go to [him]. He is going to keep himself mentally in the game. He didn’t have many chances throughout the game and then with five minutes to go he gets a great pass by [Hebbeker] and he finishes it,” Nuttall said.
The battle saw no scoring action for much of play, as the game was tied up at 1-1 within the first 10 minutes of the first half, then stymied thereafter. The Blue Hens got on the board first in the sixth minute off a goal headed in from Marco de la Bandera. Just four minutes after, O’Malley leveled the score for Hofstra, setting up a grudge match that only broke open with five minutes left to play in the game.
With the win, the Pride improves to 10-6-2 on the season. It is the third time in five years the Pride has had a 10-win season. The No. 3 Pride will also advance to face No. 2 James Madison University (JMU) in the CAA semifinals game on Sunday, Nov. 10 – a rematch of last year’s CAA Championship.
Last year, the CAA Championship saw the JMU Dukes beat Hofstra 4-2 in penalty kicks for their sixth-ever CAA Tournament title and their first since 2014. JMU striker Manuel Ferriol was named the MVP of the tournament. With the title, the Dukes earned a berth into the NCAA Tournament. Ferriol has 15 goals this season for JMU, as he looks to dominate the competition once again en route to a second consecutive title. But the Pride are a different team this year than they were last year. Why? Motivation.
“It’s going to be a very tough game; JMU has had a great run of success. The good news is I don’t think we will have a motivation problem from the team last year, and early on this year, in what was a good game,” Nuttall said. “From that point of view, it’s a big challenge, but we believe we can compete at that level.”
