By Erin Merkel, news correspondent
In a foul-filled contest where tensions ran high, the Huskies failed to score and left Parsons Field for the last time this season. Hofstra’s early goal forced Northeastern to play catch up before ending the season in a 1-0 loss in their semifinal matchup on Sunday. Northeastern finished the year with an impressive CAA record of 7-2-0.
After the Huskies defeated the Pride earlier this season 1-0, their semifinals meeting seemed to be a toss-up. Nine minutes into the match, Hofstra’s first-year forward Jenn Buoncore crossed the ball to right field where first-year midfielder Lucy Porter headed the ball into the net, leaving Northeastern fighting to even the score.
The game had tournament-level aggression as both teams committed seven fouls. Around the 30 minute mark, Northeastern’s team captain fourth-year midfielder Valentina Soares Gache took a knee after injuring her leg in a fumble with Hofstra, prompting head coach Ashley Phillips to carry her off the field.
“[We tried] to stay focused on the most important task which is winning the game and not letting all those tough tackles and hits distract you,” Gache said.
Fourth-year forward Hannah Rosenblatt and second-year forward Chelsea Domond contributed to 10 of the 20 shots by the Huskies, nearly twice the Pride’s 11 shots. Head coach Ashley Phillips said, however, the number of shots doesn’t always add up to a goal.
“The [Hofstra] keeper made a huge save at the beginning of the game off of Rosie’s shots,” Phillips said. “I’m not sure we took those chances as well as we could have. I’m not sure all those shots were as dangerous as the scoresheet makes it seem.”
Phillips looked back on what went wrong, accepting the loss and reflecting on the season.
“We got caught early on and they did a good job to kind of keep us at bay for the rest of the game,” Phillips said. “I think we had some chances and it just didn’t bounce our way today. That’s kind of the nature of this beast in this game.”
As Gache left the field for her last time, she said the team wanted to play with a humble attitude.
“We wanted to play it our way and we wanted to stay true to ourselves as much as we could,” Gache said.
