By Steven Wolff - SPECIAL TO THE CHRONICLE
The Hofstra Pride men’s soccer team played a hard fought defensive match on Saturday, but fell to the Dartmouth Big Green 3-0.
The contest was a low-scoring affair but Big Green sophomore midfielder, Matt Danilack, snapped the scoreless tie off a header at 84:02. Just less than a minute later, fellow midfielder Babacar Gadiaga added an insurance goal which the Pride could not overcome.
Dartmouth’s defense held up their end of the bargain, as Hofstra only registered five shots on goal, three of them coming from junior midfielder Joseph Holland.
Pride goalie Patric Pray was dominant, until Dartmouth scored three late goals. Prior to those goals, he made five saves to keep the game tied heading into the late stages.
Even in the loss, Pray had a stellar season so far. In eight games he only allowed eight goals, recorded 35 saves and posted three shutouts.
Pray could only make so many saves this time around as Dartmouth kept up the pressure by nearly doubling Hofstra’s total shots with a 19-11 advantage.
They also used a 5-1 corner kick advantage to keep the strain on Pray.
The Matt combo played well when they used the corner advantage and Matt Danilack scored on a header from Matt Greer. The second goal came on a deflected blocked shot, when Gadiaga kicked a deflected ball to the left side of the net.
Hofstra faltered late in the game, but they needed to get out to quicker starts too. On the season, in the second half of games, Hofstra has 11 goals, but in the first half, they only have two goals. Scoring earlier in the game will also put less pressure on Pray for the remainder of future contests.
Scoring is scarce for the Pride so far this year. They have only scored over two goals once.
The loss brings the Pride to 6-2 on the season, 3-2 on the road.
Hofstra is still second in the CAA, right behind Elon, with an 8-1 record. The Pride will look to rebound from the loss, as they continue their CAA play, traveling to Philadelphia for a 7 p.m. Wednesday matchup against Drexel.