As Hofstra senior defender Marcus Lindqvist prepared for a corner kick, Stony Brook Men’s Soccer was in need of a clear. Trailing 1-0 with seven minutes remaining in full time, the Seawolves would have to get the ball down the field quickly and apply pressure in search of an equalizer.
Instead, Lindqvist sent the ball in front of the net where sophomore forward Matthew Vowinkel was waiting to bicycle-kick it into the net and put the game on ice.
Stony Brook’s 2-0 loss to Hofstra at Kenneth P. LaValle Stadium on Wednesday, Sept. 12 marks the team’s third loss of the 2018 campaign, dropping its overall record to 2-3-1.
“Ultimately, we lost the game on restarts tonight,” head coach Ryan Anatol said. “We knew that the [Pride] wanted to come in and be direct and physical with long throws and corner kicks and for a large part of the game we dealt with it but we let a long throw and a corner kick beat us tonight.”
The first Pride goal came just seven minutes prior to Vowinkel’s backbreaker, also on a restart. Sophomore midfielder George O’Malley fired a shot into the left side of the Stony Brook goal off a throw in, breaking a scoreless tie.
Despite the two-goal deficit on the scoreboard, the Seawolves kept the game close in shots and shots on goal, trailing 13-11 and 6-4, respectively. Junior midfielder Mark Irvine led Stony Brook with three shots in the game and one on goal. His opportunity in the 31st minute was one of the team’s best scoring chances, but Hofstra senior goalkeeper Alex Ashton was able to come out of net and make an aggressive save 10 yards from the goal.
“Overall I thought the performance was pretty solid,” Anatol said. “We have to be a little more dangerous in front of the goal and create more chances and more opportunities to score goals.”
While the Seawolves’ effort was equal to that of the Pride for most of the game, they found themselves trying to match their opponent’s physicality, an effort that didn’t quite pan out. Stony Brook doubled Hofstra in yellow cards 4-2, and the game quickly assumed a chippy nature.
“We knew that they were going to come out and be very direct and very physical,” Anatol said. “So we knew that would be something that we had to match. I thought we started off in the first ten minutes a little slow but other than that I thought we matched them in that department.”
Stony Brook’s next challenge will come on Saturday, Sept. 15 when it hosts the Bryant Bulldogs. The Seawolves will look to end their two-game winless streak against a Bulldogs squad who has yet to record a win through five games this season.
“The guys expended a lot of energy tonight and they worked hard,” Anatol said. “So tomorrow it’s recovering and trying to get them physically in a position where they can show up again and compete for 90 minutes on Saturday.”
Saturday’s game will begin at 7 p.m. at Kenneth P. LaValle Stadium.
