By Anders Jorstad -- STAFF WRITER In a season of impressive victories, the Hofstra Pride women’s soccer team secured its biggest win yet on Thursday night with a 1-0 victory over the previously-undefeated Northeastern Huskies.
Heading into the match, neither the Pride nor the Huskies had fallen to a single Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) foe. Then the Pride, who was picked fifth in the conference’s preseason polls, squared off against the CAA favorite Huskies on the road.
Hofstra, who has only allowed two scores over its last 10 games, continued its defensive excellence on Thursday. Hofstra’s defense allowed just six shots on net over the course of the contest. Even still, that’s the most shots on goal that the Pride defense has given up during that 10-game span.
The Pride defense held strong as the offense was patient in the first half. Hofstra took just two shots in the first 45 minutes. The Pride got much more aggressive in the second frame as the game got more physical. The Huskies committed eight fouls in the second half.
Halfway through the final frame, Lucy Porter got Hofstra on the board on a corner kick. The defense shut out the Huskies for the last 20 minutes for the Pride’s ninth blank sheet of the season and third in a row.
As always, the defensive unit for the Pride was a big reason for its victory. Head coach Simon Riddiough employs a quick, hard-nosed defense that keeps shots from getting to the goaltenders. The combination of Madeline Anderson, Monique Iannella, and Katie and Kelly Gerdes has been a puzzle few teams have been able to solve once, let alone twice in a single game.
The win pushes the Pride to 7-0 in the conference while Northeastern falls to 4-1-1. Hofstra now controls its own destiny and is just two games away from potentially hosting the CAA tournament. Standing in Hofstra’s way are a 1-2-3 Elon squad and the College of Charleston, who holds a 3-2-1 record.
The win has all but cemented Hofstra as the cream of the crop in the conference. The Pride defense is tough enough to stop anyone. The offense is also making notable improvements as the team is averaging 2.5 goals in the last four games.
Hofstra will host Elon on Sunday in the team’s final home match of the regular season. From there it will be up to the Pride to win the conference’s regular season title and provide the fans with some exciting postseason games in Hempstead.