The Hofstra men’s soccer team kicked off a new era Aug. 20 with a familiar winning feeling.
In the program’s first game under first-year head coach Stephen Roche following the retirement of the legendary Richard Nuttall, the then 20th-ranked Pride pulled out a 2-1 win at Bucknell on a goal from midfielder Sean Keane with 9:51 remaining.
Nuttall recorded 364 wins in 38 years leading the sidelines while elevating Hofstra men’s soccer to a national level Roche is looking to continue to raise.
“It’s an incredible honor to be chosen to not only take over Hofstra but to replace Richie who’s been my boss and my friend for so many years,” said Roche, an Ireland native who spent the last 10 seasons as an assistant under Nuttall.
The momentum from the season opener carried over three days later when the Pride (2-0-1) knocked off American at home on Aug. 23 with goals from junior forward Bastian Carlman and Keane. The 2-0 start moved Hofstra to 13th in the national rankings and they stayed unbeaten after a 1-1 draw at Stony Brook in the CAA opener last Saturday.
Roche was an instrumental part of Hofstra’s recent success that included four straight Coastal Athletic Association (CAA) titles and five straight NCAA Tournament appearances. The Pride went 14-5-1 in Nuttall’s final season and reached the third round of the NCAA Tournament for the third time in five years with a 3-2 upset win at number-one ranked Vermont, the defending national champions.
“Going back to 2021 when we won the CAAs and got to the Sweet 16 the first time from that point onwards our success has allowed us to recruit great players,” Roche said. “We believe we have really good players and we then have to make sure they’re good people who buy into the Hofstra style of soccer.”
The first year since 1988 of someone other than Nuttall spearheading Hofstra men’s soccer features a largely new team with just six returners who saw game action last year.
The backline is anchored by fifth-year defender Pietro Santi, an Italy native who garnered CAA Preseason Player of the Year honors. Santi was part of a defensive unit last season that surrendered less than one goal per game and recorded seven shutouts.
“He’s the general on the field, he’s the coach on the field and he keeps our backline incredibly organized,” Roche said of Santi. “A lot of the work he does goes unnoticed but at the end of the game when we’ve limited the opponent to very few chances a lot of that is to do with him and his organization.”
Roche has also been pleased with other members of the defense so far this season including Anthony Grodzki and Joel Bona, a transfer from the University of Rhode Island, along with freshman Ben Schulz at left back.
Milo Risenhoover, a fifth-year goalkeeper who arrived at Hofstra from University of the Pacific, is also shining on the defensive end early in the season. The Portland, Ore.. native garnered CAA Defensive Player of the Week honors after recording seven saves in Hofstra’s first two matches including four stops in the Bucknell victory.
The offense has been largely carried early on by Keane, a 6-foot-5 graduate transfer from Auburn Montgomery University in Alabama, and Bastian Carlman, who has netted three goals. Roche is looking for a collective scoring effort this season that also includes many other potential offensive weapons including Lewis Matton, David Citron, Marc Perkuhn, Lewis Johnson and Schulz.
Hofstra was picked to place first in the CAA North Division, which also includes Stony Brook, Monmouth, Drexel and Northeastern. The Pride’s CAA home opener is scheduled for this Saturday against Drexel at 7 p.m.
Roche has pieced together a challenging non-conference schedule to position Hofstra for a possible at-large NCAA Tournament which the Pride obtained last year after falling to Stony Brook in the CAA semifinals. Hofstra hosts 7th-ranked Vermont in a rematch of last year’s NCAA Tournament thriller on Sept. 15 at 7 p.m. and Ivy League power Princeton on Oct. 6 at 7 p.m.
“We got unlucky in the semifinals last year but because we had a tough schedule and our national ranking was high we still got into the tournament,” Roche said. “We’ve got a long way to go with a lot of really difficult games coming up, but with the difficulty of the schedule we have if we get 11 or 12 wins you would imagine we would be in that position again.”
