Philadelphia, PA (Oct. 14) - Senior midfielder Rob Youhill (Harrogate, England) had two goals and an assist to lead Hofstra to a 4-1 over Drexel on Wednesday afternoon at Vidas Field.
With the win, the Pride improves to 6-5 overall and 4-1 in the CAA, leaving it in at least a tie for first place, depending on William & Mary's result this evening. Drexel falls to 5-6 overall and 1-3 in the conference.
The Pride fell behind 1-0 early in the second half, but kept up a barrage of corner kicks before finally finding the net at the 58:44 mark. Youhill played a line drive past the far post on his seventh corner kick of the half, and senior defender Richard Martinez (Highland, NY) outjumped everyone to head the ball back towards goal. His header popped over the top of Drexel goalkeeper Tres Heffron and over the line to even the score 1-1 as Youhill picked up his 20th career assist on the play. Martinez had nearly scored on the previous corner kick, but Heffron was able to tip the ball over the crossbar for a corner.
Just 1:52 later, Hofstra took the lead as Youhill scored a highlight-reel goal on a bicycle kick. Freshman midfielder Stephan Barea (Levittown, NY) started the play when he headed a ball into the box. With his back to goal, Youhill took a blind shot backwards over his head that went over Heffron's head and tucked under the crossbar to make the score 2-1.
Youhill added his second goal at the 69:31 mark when junior midfielder Steven Ehrichs (Brentwood, NY) chested a ball down inside the penalty box. Junior forward Johannes Grahn (Tibro, Sweden) took a shot at the top of the 18 that found Youhill's feet 12 yards from goal. Youhill settled the ball, and calmly deposited a 12-yard shot for his first two-goal game of his career.
Ehrichs helped seal the win with an unassisted goal with 7:50 left in the game on a scramble in front of the Dragons goal. A Drexel defender had the ball on his foot attempting to clear, but Ehrichs poked it free, then finished from 10 yards out for his first goal of the year.
Hofstra took four corner kicks in the first five minutes of the second half, before Drexel countered off the fourth one to take the 1-0 lead. Cory Rohlfsen played a long diagonal ball over the top of the Hofstra defense that found Cole Feffer breaking into the right side of the box. Feffer brought the ball down, took one dribble and sent a high shot under the crossbar from 10 yards out just 4:44 into the second half.
Martinez nearly struck in the game's first minutes off another corner kick. Youhill played a short pass to Martinez near the corner of the penalty area. Martinez dribbled past one defender towards the middle and ripped an 18-yard shot that hit off the right post. After Hofstra settled the rebound, junior midfielder Max Ribbens (Amsterdam, Netherlands) took a 15-yard shot that Heffron tipped wide.
Sophomore goalkeeper Greg Cumpstone (Haddam, CT) had five saves to get the win for the Pride in net, while Heffron had five saves in the loss. Hofstra finished with an 18-10 edge in shots and an 11-1 advantage in corner kicks.
Hofstra will next be in action when it travels to Old Dominion on Saturday for a 2 p.m. contest.
