Hokie Soccer Falls To The Pride, 4-1

The Hokie men’s soccer team played about as off and on as the rainfall during the first night of the Hawthorn Suites Hokie Invitational.  The team started off strong but faltered in the second half, giving up four goals en route to a 4-1 defeat and the hands of the Hofstra Pride.
           
The first half was all Virginia Tech, with the Hokies out shooting the Pride 11-1 and earning four corners to one.  However, of those 11 shots, only four ended up on goal. 

The first big chance of the game came off a free kick by junior Charlie Campbell that deflected off a Hofstra defender and went just over the crossbar.   The other two big chances in the half came when a shot by freshman Terry Boland went under the goalkeeper but just wide and a header by senior Scott Dillie that caromed off the post.  Unable to capitalize, the teams went into halftime in a 0-0 draw.

Momentum changed at the end of the first half after Campbell received two yellow cards and was sent off. From then on the Hokies were a different soccer team, being out shot 11-5 in the second half and suffering many lapses on defense throughout the half. 

Hofstra opened the floodgates in the 53rd minute when sophomore Johannes Grahn slotted the ball past goalkeeper Brendan Dunn.  Seven minutes later the Pride struck again when senior Justin Flood put home a shot from the right corner of the 6-yard box into the left corner past Dunn. 

That goal seemed to shake the confidence of Dunn and the rest of the defense and the next two goals came within a minute of each other, both by freshman Brett Carrington.  The first came off a cross across the box that caused a miscommunication between Tech defenders, which allowed the ball to slip through to Carrington with an open net.  The second came shortly after when a defensive miscue on a back pass went right to Grahn, who sent the ball forward to Carrington for the chip over a sliding Dunn.

The Hokies managed to get on the board in the 71st minute when freshman Luiz Yamashita beat the goalkeeper on a breakaway and put the shot into the open net for his second goal of the season, but garbage time goal proved too little too late.

The Hokies will look to rebound from this loss on Sunday, Sept. 7 at 4 p.m., against Xavier in the second game of the Hawthorn Suites Hokie Invitational in the newly named Sandra D. Thompson Soccer Field.