In his first season as head coach of NC State men’s soccer, Marc Hubbard has quickly elevated the standard of NC State men’s soccer. Earlier in the week, No. 24 NC State became nationally ranked for the first time since 2019, which is also the last time it made the NCAA Tournament.
After its dominant 7-0 win over Winthrop at Dail Soccer Stadium on Tuesday night, the Pack is unbeaten in its first five games of the season for the first time since 2012.
“The rankings are nice but it’s the ones at the end that matter,” Hubbard said. “You just have to continue to take it one day at a time and improve and stay healthy and that stuff will take care of itself.”
Turning around a program in a short amount of time is nothing new for Hubbard. In his first season as head coach of the University of New Hampshire, he led the Wildcats to a 10-5-3 record after they went 6-10-1 the year prior.
Hubbard didn’t stop there. Over the next nine seasons, New Hampshire became one of the best teams in college under the guidance of Hubbard. He brought the school its first four America East Tournament championships and its highest ranking in the United Soccer Coaches Poll at No. 4 in 2021.
Now in his first season with the Wolfpack, it seems like NC State is on the same trajectory as Hubbard’s previous team.
“It’s the reason I transferred here,” said junior forward Taig Healy, who followed Hubbard from New Hampshire. “I knew he was going to get the team sorted quickly. He just gets us so organized.”
After a slow start that saw the Eagles (1-4-1) outshoot the Wolfpack (4-0-1) 4-1 in the first 10 minutes, Healy got NC State on the board in the 25th minute.
Junior forward Santiago Hoyos Lopez received a pass from sophomore forward Hakim Karamoko in the box and put a shot on goal that was saved. The ball bounced off the hands of Winthrop’s goalie and onto the feet of Healy, who put it in the back of the net for his team-leading third goal of the season.
Healy’s goal broke open the floodgates — the Wolfpack scored just over six minutes later. Karamoko, who was flying around the field all night, put a shot on net that dinged off the post. Karamoko’s shot caused the goalie to dive and with the keeper out of position, sophomore forward Donavan Phillip tapped in the rebound for his first goal wearing the red and white.
NC State didn’t back down after its second goal and continued to press the Eagles. In the 39th minute, junior forward Drew Lovelace dribbled down the left sideline and into the box before crossing over two Eagles defenders, firing a shot to the bottom right post for his first goal of the year.
It was a dominant first half for the home team as the Wolfpack outshot the Eagles 20-4 and put eight more shots on goal. Despite coming out of the locker room with a three-goal lead, NC State kept attacking and added four more goals before the game’s end courtesy of fifth-year forward Junior Nare, redshirt junior forward Aidan Payne, sophomore forward Ervin Cruz and redshirt sophomore Samuel Presser.
“I said before the second half, because we had a fantastic first half, ‘We all have one common goal to just keep the same level,’” Healy said. “We want to make a statement to the rest of the country when they see the seven next to our name.”
Up next, NC State will welcome Stetson to Dail Soccer Stadium on Friday. Kickoff is set for 6 p.m.
