By Kevin Carroll – ASSISTANT SPORTS EDITOR
The latest chapter of the “Battle of Long Island” was written on a cold, blustery Tuesday night at the Hofstra Soccer Stadium, and it was a chapter that the Pride likely want to forget.
The Hofstra men’s soccer team, ranked 17th in the nation coming into the match, was shocked by their Long Island rivals, the Stony Brook Seawolves, by a score of 3-0.
“Stony Brook did a great job of closing us down,” said Hofstra head coach Richard Nuttall after the loss. “I think they wanted the game more, I think they were more committed, especially in the first half.”
The match started out slow, with both teams getting a feel for the other’s style of play. Hofstra mounted the first sustained attack, one that tallied the game’s first shot on goal, a strike from Joseph Holland that was saved by Seawolves’ goalie Tom McMahon.
Then Stony Brook seized control, getting two quick corner kicks, and a quality shot from Vince Erdei that was saved by Pride keeper Patric Pray.
The teams traded shots back and forth, including a laser off the foot of Meshack Eshun Addy that clanged off the crossbar, but it was Stony Brook that struck first.
Serge Gamwanya crossed the ball into the box, and a beautiful header from Erdei slipped past Pray to give the Seawolves a 1-0 lead, a lead that remained untouched heading into halftime.
Coming out of the break, the Pride started getting more and more chances on goal, but couldn’t put enough of them on goal to really challenge McMahon. Hofstra had multiple opportunities to convert on corner kick opportunities, but the Seawolves didn’t waver each time they were tested.
As the minutes ticked off the clock, Stony Brook started to keep the ball down on the Pride’s end of the field, not allowing the Pride to get into any sort of rhythm offensively. Patric Pray was tested by Martin Giordano with two quick shots during the 73rd minute. But in a span of four seconds, Pray made two fantastic saves to keep the Pride within a goal of the lead.
However, it was Erdei who found the back of the net again for the Seawolves in the 82nd minute, taking a through ball from Gamwanya and chipping it over Pray, who had come out to challenge, into the net.
“I think he [Erdei] is very athletic, and has a high soccer IQ,” said Nuttall. “I was impressed with him today.”
Just a few minutes later, the Seawolves put the game on ice, thanks to a strike off the foot of Martin Giordano, assisted by Thibault Duval. Time ran out on the Pride just a few moments later, leaving them on the wrong side of a 3-0 final score.
Holland and Eshun Addy led the Pride with four shots apiece. In all, nine different players took shots for the Pride, but all came up empty.
The loss drops Hofstra’s record to 11-6 on the season, while the Seawolves improve to 6-6-3.
The Pride soccer team will next be in action on Halloween, for their regular season finale matchup against James Madison University. That match will kick off at 7 p.m. at University Park in Harrisonburg, Virginia.