By Jean-Pierre Guzhnay – STAFF WRITER
The Pride started 2015 out with a bang by toppling No. 15 Syracuse in a dramatic 2-1 victory during the season opener at the Hofstra Soccer Stadium on Friday night.
“It’s a big upset, we knew we could played with them in our minds,” said head coach Richard Nuttal. “I think that we had a very poor first half, where you give too much respect [and] sat back too much, the backline was much too deep. So we decide to press a lot more in the second half and it put them on the back foot.”
For the first 30 minutes of the game, neither side had any concrete goal scoring chances. Syracuse held possession and pushed the Pride into their own half but Hofstra’s backline provided a very solid defensive performance to keep the Orange at bay.
The only clear danger that the Pride found themselves in the first half was in the 44th minute when a shot by Syracuse freshman, Miles Robinson, threaten to produce but it was blocked by the heroics of Dino Alfonso after he cleared out the ball from the goal line, saving a potential deficit.
When Hofstra did press up in the second half, they immediately had some impact as the Pride recorded two shots in the first four minutes, both by Joseph Holland.
Since the Pride retained some possession, they pushed forward with Sophomore Meshack Eshun Addy, who passed through defenders on the left flank creating most of the team’s chances. Even with the newly found progress on offense, Hofstra still couldn’t find the back of the net.
The match looked set for a draw until Syracuse`s Liam Callahan was issued a straight red card in the 61st minute for bringing down Mani Walcott. The consequences proved to be costly as it forced Syracuse to play with a 10-man crew.
Joseph Holland fired from the penalty spot and converted for an early 1-0 lead and the team’s first goal of the new season.
The Pride went on to capitalize the numerical advantage against the away side when Henry Crayton, scored the goal that would ultimately secure the win, firing from 10 yards out and putting Hofstra up 2-0.
Although Syracuse made a run that threatened the Pride’s chances of sustaining their lead, despite being ahead by two goals and with one more man on the field.
Syracuse who not only found themselves converting on a penalty shot of their own in the 70th minute to bring down the score by one, but they also dominated possession in the late second half. The Orange fired on all cylinders in a last attempt to level up the game. “I’m not happy with the last twenty minutes.” said Nuttal. “We panicked a little bit and we showed a lot of inexperience, when we should have closed the game out professionally.”
The Pride’s inability of controlling the last few minutes almost cost them the game when Syracuse nearly found the net in the 90th minute.
Following Juuso Pasanen`s rocket shot that looked to tie things up but the cross bar denied it, Syracuse forward Chris Nanco fired the rebound shot seconds later inside the box as it looked set for a dramatic equalizer.
But senior goalkeeper Patrick Pray, who already had eight saves prior in the game, stopped the shot with a remarkable save to cement the win.
Coach Richard Nuttall sang praise for his senior goalkeeper following Patric Pray`s fantastic performance against Syracuse who played a crucial part in the upset on Friday night.
“The save was unbelievable,” said Nuttal. “He’s done the easy things well and the difficult things also well so probably our man of the match.”