By Chris Detwiler -- STAFF WRITER Last Thursday evening, the Hofstra women’s soccer team defeated the Drexel University Dragons 2-0 in a defensive battle to move to 3-0-0 in Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) play.
The Pride is now 7-3-2 overall this season and are on a six-game unbeaten streak. Five of those last six games ended with a shutout in Hofstra’s favor.
Towards the end of the first half of Thursday’s game, Drexel got called for a handball in their own penalty box, which gave Hofstra a penalty kick. Senior Kristin Desmond got set to take the shot and every Hofstra fan should know what happened next. Naturally, Desmond sunk the ball in the back of the net, which was her team-leading seventh goal of the season, giving the Pride a 1-0 lead.
That mark is also good for the most goals in the CAA. Desmond has scored three goals in her last two games.
“[Desmond] is a beast,” said Hofstra head coach Simon Riddiough. “She covered a lot of ground tonight, and that’s why we were so good defensively.”
The defense has been rock-solid recently for the Pride, only allowing one goal in the last six games.
“Like I’ve said all year, our back four and our goal keepers have been really, really solid, so we shut them down,” Riddiough said.
After a back-and-forth battle between the two teams to start off the second half, junior Jenn Buoncore scored a goal of her own in the 86th minute of play, which gave Hofstra a late 2-0 lead and put the nail in the coffin of the Dragons. That was her third goal of the year.
Hofstra went with a two-goalie system again in this game, a strategy that Riddiough seems to like. Senior Jenna Borresen started the game and played the entire first half, allowing no goals. Senior Ashley Wilson came in relief in the second half of the game and also posted a shutout, making two saves in the process.
Fantastic performances from Desmond, Buoncore and the defense led this team to their third CAA win of the year. This puts the Pride in first place in the conference and makes them the only team that is still undefeated in conference play.
“We lost to all three teams that we’ve beaten so far last year,” Riddiough said. “But if we put in the effort … that we did today, I think it’s going to be difficult for some teams to beat us.”
The Pride travel down to Williamsburg, Virginia, to take on the College of William and Mary on Sunday, Oct. 1. The Pride’s opponent, the Tribe, was picked to finished second in the conference in the preseason, but it is off to a slow start and is still looking for its first CAA win.