Believe it or not, while those of us here in the Northeast enjoy a few more weeks of summer vacation, the college soccer world has been at work since the end of July. The 2012 season kicked off this weekend, and what a weekend it was! Eight teams in the preseason Top 25 lost on opening day!

While #20 William & Mary lost to #1 Duke, #8 Penn State lost a tight battle to #7 UVA, and #13 Santa Clara succumbed to six goals in 21 minutes by #2 Stanford, #4 UNC, #9 Florida, #11 Memphis, #12 Notre Dame, and #23 West Virginia all lost in upsets to unranked opponents. Another top team, #5 UCLA, was down 3-2 to unranked UConn when their game was cancelled due to lightning.

Locally, Hofstra and assistant coach Tobias Bischof (also program administrator for the LIJSL Select PDP Program) knocked off Ohio State, 2-0. The Pride allowed just one shot on goal, and scored two second half goals, one by East Meadow’s Lulu Echeverry, to secure the victory.

In other local games, Rutgers topped Monmouth, 3-0, and Seton Hall blanked LIU, 2-0. Taylor Mims of Miller Place made a couple strong defensive plays for the Pirates in the victory.