By Holden Willemsen
No. 16 Pride extend unbeaten run with win over University of North Carolina-Wilmington
9/14/24
The No. 16 Hofstra University men’s soccer team defeated University of North Carolina-Wilmington (UNCW), 3-0 to extend their win streak to five and unbeaten run to six at Hofstra Soccer Stadium on Saturday, Sept. 14. The reigning Coastal Athletic Conference (CAA) champions now move to 2-0 in conference and 5-0-1 overall.
“I thought we were brilliant in the first half with all of our main guys out there firing on all cylinders,” lauded Pride head coach Richard Nuttall. “[The substitutes] did a good job, kept a clean sheet against UNCW who are a good team…but I thought we steamrolled them… it was a Hofstra win today.”
Hofstra started the match off 3 minutes in with a goal by Jacob Woznicki, a junior transfer student out of Bristol, Connecticut from Stonehill College via an overhead kick off a corner kick that was deflected within the box. This was Woznicki’s fifth goal of the season just six games in, with four that came off crosses.
“Some of [the set-piece preparation] is repetition and some of it is knowing your players and the skill-set they have,” said Nuttall. “We’ve got the long-throw with Eoin (Farrell)… then we’ve got great people in the air and we just work off that. It’s our strength, so why not use it?”
The Pride’s second goal of the day came just 11 minutes and 28 seconds later after in the 15th minute of the match as Roc Carles drew a penalty due to a late tackle in the box by UNCW’s Valter Salavuo and Eoin Farrell calmly converted to the bottom right. This was Farrell’s second goal of the season.
Hofstra’s first half attacking-onslaught did not stop there as in the 43rd minute, junior Pablo Hempelmann-Perez had flicked the ball on for fellow junior Jon Jelercic, who whipped in a ball that was headed in by freshman Lennon Gill. Gill had recently recovered from a 22 month knee injury, with this being his first goal post-recovery.
“[Gill] is a talented man who’s been out of the game for two years… and I think the goal will give him a little bit of a boost in confidence but I think there’s much more upside to see from him,” noted Nuttall. “He was great today, he was red hot. We got him in at the right time, we rested Jacob (Woznicki) and Laurie (Goddard)…I mean, he doesn’t smile much, does he? (laughs)…but he’s a great guy and we’re lucky to have him.”
After a scoreless but defensively compact second half, the Pride attained their fourth clean sheet in six games, putting them among the top defenses in the country and securing their undefeated record thus far.
“I don’t want to be cliche, but it’s an 11-man defense and when you see how hard the forwards work… to dictate where the ball is going and dictate the time and direction of the ball and everybody else follows suit,” explained Nuttall. “Our backline has been doing really well and so has Filippo (Dadone). I’m ultra-pleased with the clean-sheet.”
Hofstra’s next game will be at home against the University of New Hampshire Wildcats on Tuesday, Sept. 17 with kickoff at 7pm.
Contributed by Holden Willemsen
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