Box Score The men's soccer team (8-9-2, 6-4-1 CAA) secured its first ever trip to the CAA playoffs with a convincing 4-0 win against No. 27 Hofstra (10-5-2, 7-3-1) in the regular season finale on Friday night at Parsons Field. The Huskies extended their winning streak to an all-time team-record six games, while scoring a season-high four goals. Junior Ahmed Talaat scored what would prove to be the game-winning goal just 18 minutes into the game. Freshman Alexander Volk led the Huskies with two goals and two assists and junior Greg Kilkenny added a goal and an assist.
The Huskies came out slow on Friday night, as Hofstra controlled play early on, but NU quickly picked up the pace. In the 16th minute, Kilkenny crossed the ball to freshman Matthew Laning, but Hofstra freshman Jamal Neptune headed the ball out of harm's way.
Less than two minutes later, the Huskies were on the attack again. Before the ball went out of bounds, Laning sent a cross to Volk in front of the net. Volk beat 6'2 junior keeper Tom Johansen with a shot that ricocheted off the crossbar straight down to the goal line. Ahmed Talaat came streaking in and headed the ball into an empty net, giving NU an early 1-0 advantage with his fifth goal of the season at 18:18.
The Pride came right back at NU on the ensuing play. Senior Arman Osooli streaked down the left side of the field past a few Husky defenders, but freshman Lars Okland cut him down as he tried to sneak in behind the defense.
At 24:39, Laning nearly put the Huskies up 2-0. From the middle of the right side of the box, he drove a shot that clanged off the top of the right post and was cleared out of the way.
It didn't take the Huskies long to get that second goal they nearly collected seconds earlier. Sophomore Jonathan Batista sent a ball toward the net and Volk headed it, redirecting the ball past Johansen into the right side of the net just inside the post. It was Volk's fifth goal of the year.
Then in the 34th minute, Kilkenny ripped a shot from 25 yards that Johansen handled to keep the Pride within two goals. Hofstra responded with a golden scoring opportunity two minutes later. Amid a scramble in front of the NU net, a Hofstra player sent a ball toward the left corner of the goal, but Okland was there to make the defensive save and preserve the 2-0 lead.
The Pride nearly broke through again with 6:30 left in the half. Junior Ray Hassett and sophomore Justin Flood exchanged nifty passes before Hassett led Flood breaking to the net, but he was just offside. Three minutes later in another scramble in front of the Husky net, sophomore Cory Gudmundson had a shot blocked, and Mahmoud Talaat stopped freshman Rob Youhill's follow up, preserving NU's 2-0 lead at halftime.
The Pride produced the first good chance of the second half in the 48th minute, as Hassett had his shot blocked before junior Adrian Papaluca sent the rebound shot high over the net.
Northeastern wasted little time padding its lead after avoiding Hofstra's early attack. Senior co-captain Daryl Brack led Kilkenny down the field with a lead pass. Unable to beat his defender and gain a good angle to the net, Kilkenny stopped just inside the box and found Volk wide open in front of the net. With ample time, Volk deposited the Huskies' third goal of the game and his sixth of the season into the right corner of the net past Johansen at 53:35.
Choppy play ensued on both ends of the field over the next ten minutes, as the Huskies held on to a 3-0 lead. The Pride were called for three yellow cards in 15 minutes while NU picked up one.
With just over 15 minutes to play, Kilkenny ran down the field defended by Neptune, who blocked Kilkenny's initial shot. The ball rolled toward the midfield, where Brack collected it and passed to Volk. Volk then dished to Kilkenny, who deked around Johansen one-on-one and scored on a bad angle shot from close range at 74:42.
Brack had a great chance to add to NU's lead with eight minutes left, but his shot from 20 yards out hit the outside of the net. The Huskies were in control the rest of the way and closed out the regular season with a season-high output in goals (four) and consecutive wins (six).
Mahmoud Talaat made six saves to earn his fourth shutout of the season. Tom Johansen made one stop in the loss.
Hofstra outshot the Huskies 17-13 and 10-4 in the second half, despite the lopsided score. The Pride also finished with a 6-2 advantage in corner kicks.
Northeastern will make its first CAA playoff appearance at fourth seed George Mason on Tuesday, Oct. 31 for the quarterfinals game. The game will begin at 7 p.m.
HOFSTRA (10-5-2) vs. Goals by period 1 2 Tot
Northeastern (8-9-2) -------------------------------
Date: Oct 27,2006 Attendance: 209 HOFSTRA............. 0 0 - 0
Weather: cool Northeastern........ 2 2 - 4
HOFSTRA Northeastern
Pos # Player Sh SOG G A Pos # Player Sh SOG G A
------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------
G 1 Johansen, Tom....... - - - - G 1 Talaat, Mahmoud..... - - - -
3 Hassett, Ray........ 3 - - - 4 Batista, Jonathan... - - - 1
5 Flood, Gary......... 2 1 - - 8 Brack, Daryl........ 3 - - 1
6 Gudmundson, Corey... 1 - - - 9 Talaat, Ahmed....... 1 1 1 -
11 Osooli, Arman....... 3 2 - - 10 Tangney, Padraig.... 1 - - -
12 Flood, Justin....... 1 - - - 11 Kilkenny, Greg...... 4 2 1 1
17 Youhill, Rob........ 2 2 - - 14 Ennis, Brendan...... - - - -
18 Irish, Lewis........ 1 - - - 17 Okland, Lars........ - - - -
22 Neptune, Jamal...... - - - - 18 Laning, Matthew..... 1 - - -
24 Martinez, Richard... - - - - 20 Volk, Alexander..... 2 2 2 2
25 McCrea, Rory........ - - - - 22 Koslosky, Brian..... - - - -
---------- Substitutes ---------- ---------- Substitutes ----------
7 Andrada, Arnel...... - - - - 2 Nasman, Kyle........ - - - -
10 Sosa, Brian......... 1 1 - - 5 Nunez, Eduardo...... - - - -
14 Schmidt, Eric....... - - - - 6 Peterson, Neal...... - - - -
19 Papaluca, Adrian.... 3 1 - - 15 Patrikis, Nicholas.. 1 - - -
20 Pinto, Bill......... - - - - 19 Stefanek, Konrad.... - - - -
Totals.............. 17 7 0 0 Totals.............. 13 5 4 5
HOFSTRA Northeastern
# Player MIN GA Saves # Player MIN GA Saves
--------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------
1 Johansen, Tom....... 90:00 4 1 1 Talaat, Mahmoud..... 90:00 0 6
TM TEAM................ 0:00 0 1
Shots by period 1 2 Tot Saves by period 1 2 Tot
------------------------------- -------------------------------
HOFSTRA............. 7 10 - 17 HOFSTRA............. 1 0 - 1
Northeastern........ 9 4 - 13 Northeastern........ 3 4 - 7
Corner kicks 1 2 Tot Fouls 1 2 Tot
------------------------------- -------------------------------
HOFSTRA............. 4 2 - 6 HOFSTRA............. 8 1 - 9
Northeastern........ 2 0 - 2 Northeastern........ 6 9 - 15
SCORING SUMMARY:
GOAL Time Team Goal Scorer Assists Description
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. 18:18 NU Talaat, Ahmed Volk, Alexander
2. 25:21 NU Volk, Alexander Batista, Jonathan
3. 53:35 NU Volk, Alexander (8) Kilkenny, Greg
4. 74:42 NU Kilkenny, Greg Volk, Alexander; Brack, Daryl
CAUTIONS AND EJECTIONS:
YC-HOFSTRA #25 (51:17); YC-HOFSTRA #17 (60:33); YC-NU #9 (64:32);
YC-HOFSTRA #14 (66:19)
Officials: Referee: Joe Guerrerro; Asst. Referee: Amilcar Secaju; Mike Wallace;
Scorer: Ricky Popolizio;
Offsides: HOFSTRA 2, Northeastern 2.
