By Eoghan Kelly, News Staff
He did it again – only this time, it was on the biggest stage of his career.
Senior forward Don Anding scored 5:21 into double overtime of the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) Championship, giving Northeastern a 1-0 win over Hofstra University and sending the Huskies to the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2002.
After 105 scoreless minutes, Anding took a crossing pass from junior midfielder Dante Marini and beat Hofstra’s (11-6-4) senior goalkeeper Adam Janowski from 20 yards out for the game’s only goal.
Northeastern improved to 13-2-4 with the win – tying the program record for wins in a season – and finished first in the CAA for the first time since joining the conference in 2005. The Huskies also remain undefeated (5-0-4) in games going into overtime.
The goal was Anding’s sixth game-winner and 14th goal of 2012, the most of any Northeastern player since Bjorn Hansen (13) in 1994. The CAA named Anding 2012 Player of the Year on Thursday after he finished the regular season atop the conference with 28 points and 13th in the nation in points per game (1.75).
Northeastern will play in the first round of the NCAA tournament Nov. 15 unless it earns one of the top-16 seeds in the NCAA tournament, in which case it will not play until the second round Nov. 18. The tournament field will be announced Nov. 12 at 5:30 p.m. on NCAA.com.
A full recap of today’s game and NCAA tournament preview will appear in the Nov. 15 issue of The Huntington News.
