By John Napolitano - SPECIAL TO THE CHRONICLE
The Pride seemed like they couldn’t be beat coming into the weekend. So it was to everyone’s surprise that New Hampshire broke their hot streak.
Following a 3-1 victory against UMass-Lowell, Hofstra field hockey had strung together seven consecutive wins. But on Sunday, a 2-5 New Hampshire team would contain the Pride completely and hand them a 7-1 loss.
All of the scoring for the entire game came in the first half, with UMass leading off the offense four minutes in with an unassisted score. UMass got off 11 shots for the game, but would not score again for the remainder of the afternoon.
Charlotte Loehr put Hofstra on the board eight minutes into the game on a direct corner shot to tie the score. Claudia Marin-Samper was all the Pride needed the rest of the afternoon, scoring the go-ahead goal, and an insurance goal later on.
In the 11th minute, Marin-Samper broke away from the defense and beat the goalie to give Hofstra the lead, while the 29th minute featured a shot off the crossbar by her to lead the Pride to the eventual final score of 3-1.
But then the Pride’s seven-game winning streak was thwarted this past Sunday in an upset fashion against the University of New Hampshire Wildcats, who came out of the gate strong and stunned the Pride in what would end their longest winning streak since 2003.
The loss is especially startling when the two teams are compared on paper, but it just goes to show that anything can happen in Division I athletics. The only goal garnered by the Pride came off the stick of junior Charlotte Loehr, her sixth of the season, at the 16-minute mark to cut their 2-0 deficit in half. The Wildcats doubled their total by the end of the first half and continued to bring that same intensity throughout the second.
Hofstra senior Jonel Boileau made a bid for a second goal, but it was ultimately disallowed due to a green card re-enter infraction. New Hampshire never looked back as they continued to score following the Hofstra goalie change.
Head coach Kathy De Angelis was asked what she planned on doing differently to regain momentum and continue the Pride’s winning ways. “There’s not going to be any change in our game plan. This was an isolated incident,” she said.
Coach De Angelis went on to say, “We were the victim of three fast breaks and that’s difficult to recover from. We’re going to focus on what we’ve been doing and come back even stronger.”
Despite their 7-1 loss to the Wildcats, the Pride still holds one of the best records in all of Hofstra Athletics, and that’s something to be proud of.
The Pride field hockey team returns to action on Thursday, Sept. 25, against the Bobcats of Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Conn.