By Chris Vaccaro

Hofstra’s “relentless pursuit of excellence,” the motto for this season’s squad, has been a true testament to what junior attacker Athan Iannucci’s playing style resembles.So it was no surprise when Iannucci broke the single season scoring mark during the CAA men’s lacrosse semifinal win over Villanova at James M. Shuart Stadium with his 52nd goal of the year.The record did not mean much for Iannucci, who said his teammates did most of the work.”[My goals] come from everyone else doing what they have to do,” he said. “I can’t really take too much credit for that.”Iannucci barreled through an open Wildcat defense and misty weather to receive a pass from sophomore Mike Unterstein in front of the cage at 9:07 of the third quarter. He fired the ball past Wildcat goalie Joe Canuso and broke Tom Kessler’s record of 51 goals, set in 2001.”You have to be in his hands 18 to 20 yards away,” Canuso said. “He has a great stick and is a great overall player.”During the second quarter Iannucci had an open shot, and could have broken the record earlier, but passed to freshman Tom Dooley for an assist, helping the team rather than padding his own statistics.Hofstra head coach John Danowski said he first noticed Iannucci’s athleticism, then his skills and finally his tremendous will to succeed, when he was a younger player.”You can’t coach the desire to excel,” Danowski said. “You deserve a lot of credit scoring that many goals in a season.”Along with Iannucci’s personal accolade, the Pride won its record 15th straight game. Milestones aren’t the team’s main focus, winning games is.”We haven’t sensed a great jubilation of accomplishment,” Danowski said. “There’s one goal we want to accomplish.” That goal, of course, is to win a national championship. Iannucci led the Pride in scoring with four goals and added one assist against the Wildcats. He scored 27 goals his freshman year, 15 last season and has 94 career tallies, only 13 behind Andy Carlson’s 107 scores for third on the all-time career scoring list.

Athan Iannucci scored 52 goals this year.