By Jeffrey Werner – STAFF WRITER The Hofstra Pride men’s soccer team continued to dominate the competition as they took a 2-0 victory over local rivals, the St. John’s Red Storm and improved to a 4-0 start.
Harri Hawkins and Meschak Eshun Addy contributed to the winning effort with one goal each and Patrick Pray achieved his 14th career shutout.
The first half consisted of the Pride offense struggling to take shots. The first shot of the game for Hofstra, taken by Joseph Holland, came a little over 27 minutes into the game.
Then Pride offense started to unfold once Hawkins fired the ball from 15 yards out into the back of the net to put Hofstra up 1-0 for his first goal of the season.
Hofstra recorded one more shot for a total of three, capitalizing on their one shot on goal within the first 45 minutes while St. John’s failed to convert on six shot attempts, primarily thanks to the three saves by Patrick Pray.
Although the first half opened with St. John’s putting pressure on Pray, it was Hofstra’s turn to go on the attack in the second half. The Pride doubled their shot input in the second half while the defense limited the Red Storm’s scoring attempts from six in the first to four after halftime.
Unlike the Red Storm, Hofstra continued their stellar work on defense to shut St. John’s down and the Pride offense kept capitalizing on their drives. Within the first two minutes of the second half, Eshun Addy flipped the ball to himself and fired it into the upper corner, far out of the reach of goalkeeper Jordan Stagmiller, to further extend the Pride’s lead to 2-0.
After Hofstra’s second goal, it was Pray and the Hofstra defense’s turn to take over the game. Despite St. John taking six corner kicks, the defense didn’t allow a single shot off the corners.
The defense made Pray’s job easy, as he only had to stop two of the four shots the Red Storm took in the last 45 minutes, and secure the win that improves Pray’s record to 4-0.
With this victory, the Hofstra Pride remain undefeated in the season. Their next game will be in Washington, D.C. taking on the American University Eagles on Friday, September 11th.