By Chris Detwiler -- STAFF WRITER
A cold autumn night turned bitter for Hofstra fans as the men’s soccer team fell to the Tribe of William & Mary in the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) quarterfinals by a score of 4-1 on Saturday at Hofstra Soccer Stadium.
This marks the second year in a row that the Tribe knocked the Pride out of contention for the CAA championship.
The No. 5 seed Tribe were led by junior Antonio Bustamante, who scored all four of William & Mary’s goals in the routing.
Bustamante led the CAA in goals in the regular season and set the CAA Championship record for most goals scored in a match with his performance on Sunday night.
Hofstra’s lone goal came off the foot of sophomore Oscar Ramsay in the 26th minute.
The goal came from a corner kick opportunity where junior Jon Fraser hooked the ball perfectly to Ramsay who used the back of his foot to kick the ball past the Tribe goalkeeper to tie the game 1-1.
That goal led to a brief momentum swing for the Pride. Unfortunately for Hofstra, some foul calls that many Hofstra players considered to be unfair dampened that momentum and in the 35th minute, Bustamante scored again to give William & Mary the 2-1 lead. The Tribe never looked back after that, scoring two more goals before the game would end to secure their spot in the CAA semifinals.
“Obviously [we’re] very disappointed,” said Hofstra head coach Richard Nuttall. “I’ve got to give the credit to William & Mary. They’ve got quality all over the field. They’ve got pace, they’ve got skill and they’ve got Bustamante, probably one of the best players in the country.”
Hofstra created many scoring opportunities, taking 18 shots, nine of which were on goal and kicking seven total corner kicks in the game.
Redshirt-senior goalkeeper Phil Breno made eight total saves on the night for William & Mary.
Some of those saves came from very athletic plays in the box where the ball was inches away from finding the back of the net.
This match marked the final game in a Hofstra uniform for seven seniors, but they will not be leaving without making an impact.
“All seven [seniors] will be tremendous members of society. Great students, great people. I’m going to miss all of them,” Nuttall said.
William & Mary will head down to Virginia to face off against the No. 1 seed team in the CAA, the James Madison University Dukes. This is the quarterfinal matchup of the tournament.
The Pride finished the season with an overall record of 6-6-6, which marks Hofstra’s fourth consecutive season finishing with a record of .500 or higher.