By: Zach Hayes, News Staff
Freshman midfielder Laurence Braude’s first two collegiate goals paced a 4-0 win for the men’s soccer team over Hofstra at Parsons Field Wednesday.
The victory sent the Huskies over the .500 mark at 2-1-2 in Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) play heading into Saturday’s showdown with conference preseason favorite UNC–Wilmington.
Northeastern was first on the scoreboard when Braude score off a feed from senior forward Nick Lueders five minutes into the opening frame. The Sydney, Australia, native continued his scoring ways in the 19th minute, when Hofstra goalkeeper Roberto Pellegrini’s save rebounded to Huskies freshman midfielder Nikko Lara. Lara pounced on the loose ball and found his fellow freshman for Braude’s second score of the game.
“That’s what we expected out of [Braude] when he came over here,” Huskies head coach Brian Ainscough said. “The college game is a lot different from the game he’s used to in terms of the physical nature of the game and the pace of the game. It’s a lot more frantic than where he’s from in Sydney.”
Braude was involved in more scoring opportunities for the Huskies, this time in the 58th minute when he dribbled past Pellegrini and passed it to Lueders who scored and provided the Huskies a three-goal advantage. Lueders, who entered the game when freshman forward Dale McDonald departed with a leg injury early in the first half, tacked on his second goal of the campaign in the closing minutes.
“Nick Lueders came in and we didn’t miss a beat,” Ainscough said. “Nick was actually tremendous tonight.”
Huskies’ sophomore goalkeeper Oliver Blum posted his third shutout of the season against the Pride, making four saves overall and thwarting offensive pressure from Hofstra in the first half. A transfer from Providence, Blum said he’s becoming more and more confident in net for the Huskies.
“Each game I get a little more comfortable – get to know my players and my back four,” Blum said. “With each game the communication’s getting better and I’m just more comfortable overall.”
Blum was also quick to credit his three senior defenders and team captains – Santiago Bedoya, Matt Sanford and Brendan Ennis – with making his job easier.
“I couldn’t ask anything more of them,” Blum said. “It’s the best situation to come into to have three senior captains as your defenders. You couldn’t ask for anything more.”
Even with the convincing win over Hofstra, the team dropped a match to CAA foe Georgia State last Sunday night in Atlanta by a final score of 2-0.
Despite nine shots in the contest, the Huskies were unable to beat Panthers goalkeeper Vincent Foermer, who made a number of critical stops on Northeastern attacks. Georgia State provided Foermer a lead when forward Yasser Majluf found the high left corner of the net in the 29th minute, a slim lead the Panthers would not relinquish.
“We had enough quality scoring chances to win the game in the first half,” Ainscough said. “It was all one-way traffic except for one attack by Georgia State. We were just not clinical in taking care of it. You get more frustrated when you get quality looks. You figure those should go in. We had the momentum early on and we didn’t take care of the game then.”
Georgia State put the game away with an insurance goal in the 75th minute by forward Jacob Hamilton. He received a pinpoint cross that he slid past Blum for the two-score lead. Blum finished with two goals allowed and one save in the contest, while Braude and Bedoya paced Northeastern with two shots apiece in the loss.
“We need to keep playing the game if we want to be more successful,” Ainscough said. “We lost our way a little bit and it became an ugly game.”
Despite the loss on Sunday, Ainscough said he is pleased with how his team responded with a rousing victory in front of the home fans.
“We all knew how bad that tasted this weekend and we knew we needed this,” Ainscough said. “In the last couple of years, we’ve had performances like this a lot. We’ve had a ton of shutouts, games where we’ve scored multiple goals, especially come conference time. We put Sunday in our rearview mirror. It’s a great reaction from the boys and it’s a great credit to them.”
The Huskies, who now stand at 4-5-2 overall on the season, continue CAA play this Saturday with a home game against UNC–Wilmington. Kickoff is scheduled for 6 p.m. at Parsons Field.
