The Hofstra University men’s lacrosse team suffered its first defeat of the season to Siena College on Friday, Feb. 14. The final score was 17-11. The loss sank the Pride’s record to 2-1 for the season.
The Saints took a 7-0 lead before Hofstra could even get on the board. Pratt Reynolds powered Siena’s offense with four goals, while Gavin Blenk scored three off the bench and Andrew Arcuri saved 15 shots.
John Madsen scored three goals in the loss to extend his hat trick streak to three games. Drew Bogardus, Anthony Mollica and Joey DeYoung found the back of the net to extend their goal-scoring streaks to three games. The Pride used Shea Kennedy and Sean Henderson in net, each goaltender made six saves.
“We went down seven to nothing, that’s not a picture of what we’re all about,” said Hofstra head coach Seth Tierney. “When you spot a team seven goals and lose by six, there’s a lot of math involved.”
From the opening draw between Cole Myers and Logan Banek, the Saints had all the momentum. Myers won the opening draw, and the Pride took the first offensive possession of the game. Arcuri made three excellent saves on Trevor Natalie, Madsen and Bogardus to stifle the Pride. On the other side of the ball, Patrick Radomski broke the ice for Siena.
The game continued to slip away as the Pride allowed three goals in the following three minutes. In total, Siena scored seven unanswered goals until Natalie found the back of the net for the Pride with one minute and seven seconds left in the first quarter.
Bogardus scored 14 seconds into the second quarter, but the Pride’s momentum was once again silenced by a lengthy goal run by the Saints. After getting to 10 goals, Hofstra took out starting goalie Kennedy and replaced him with Henderson. Siena led 12-3 at halftime.
Coming out of halftime, the Pride responded well. Hofstra outscored Siena 4-2 in the third quarter and 4-3 in the fourth quarter, but their nine-goal halftime deficit was ultimately too much to overcome.
“[Lacrosse] is not a game of halves,” Tierney said. “Now that the game is over, we have to find the good parts and build on it. We also need to find the bad part about it and make those corrections.”
The Pride look to bounce back next week when they visit St. John’s University on Saturday, Feb. 22. Face-off is at noon.
