By Andrew Scharff

Emotional, Emotional, Emotional. Those were the only words Hofstra men’s lacrosse head coach Seth Tierney could use to describe Hofstra’s 8-6 season opening win against ninth ranked UMass. Prior to Saturday UMass had won the past six meetings between the two teams including last the meeting which came in NCAA tournament. So since May 20, 2006 Hofstra was waiting for this game.

As if the Pride needed any more motivation to win, this was also the first game they were without teammate Nick Colleluori. Colleluori lost his battle with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma on Nov 28, 2006

The game lived up to all the hype and expectations. Hofstra’s young and inexperienced defense held the fort and did what they had do as they held preseason All-American midfielder Brian Jacovina scoreless. And it was only fitting that Mike Colleluori; Nick’s Brother had the game winning goal. “I can’t be happier for these guys. I know what it meant to these guys and all week long I tried to keep it as our first game,” Tierney said after the game. “But these guys wanted to put in the extra effort and try to rewrite history. We knew we couldn’t go back to Stony Brook University stadium together, but what we could do is control the future. I am glad they got to reap the benefits of a victory today.”

Tierney and junior midfielder Mike Unterstein all peg Thursday as the turning point. On Thursday, Tierney sat his team down in Hofstra Theater in Margiotta Hall and they watched the last 6 minutes and 43 seconds of last May’s game against UMass. After that Tierney turned around and asked Unterstein who was sitting a folding chair what he thought and he replied “It stunk.”

Then Tierney continued by showing the team Inside Lacrosse special on Nick Colleluori, which really brought the team back to reality.

“Everybody wanted so bad for last year’s team, Nick,” Unterstein said. “I think we had set in our minds that we weren’t going to lose today no matter what.”

Though it was wasn’t an easy task for Hofstra team who had three new starting defenseman and freshman goalie in the net. Coming into the Tierney did decide who would be the starting goalie, but by Saturday afternoon Tierney chose Danny Orlando over Brian Schneider.

“Earlier in the week I spoke [Brian] Schneider and told his I was going with Danny. Danny has done a great job in the scrimmages and practice this week and it was very nerve-racking starting a freshman in goal,” Tierney said. “Brian is the older guy and must have been hard to take, but he has been very supportive of Danny. We had hunch it would be Danny after 1-2 scrimmages. But it mostly a gut feeling that worked out.”

Even with a new a defense, goalie and even a new faceoff specialist, the Pride managed hang around and always stay with a stacked UMass team who are total opposite of the Pride as they returned 10 starters who saw significant action last season.

The Pride took the first lead of the game as the reigning CAA Rookie of the Year in 2006 Tommy Dooley scored the first goal of the Pride season, but UMass answered quickly as Jim Connolly tied it for the Minutemen

Ryan Miller, a fifth year senior who didn’t play last year scored to give the Pride a 2-1 lead. But UMass took a 3-2 lead on two goals by midfielder Brett Garber. But Tierney and team were not afraid of being down goal at halftime, because Tierney had put his team in this situation during practice that week.

“We posed it to our team as a drill in practice this week,” said Tierney. “You’re down one goal with 30 minutes to go. What are you going to do? And they responded.”

Miller scored his second goal and Colleluori scored his fourth goal, but UMass answered with two goals midfielder Rory Pedrick. Heading into the fourth quarter, with Hofstra down a goal they exploded. Freshman attackman Dan Stein tied the game and Dooley’s second goal gave the Hofstra the lead but that would be short lived as attackman Denis Whelan tied the game for UMass.

Then with 4:26 left Colleluori fired a bounce shot with found its way past UMass goalie Doc Schneider. As Colleluori came to sideline to celebrate the first one to congratulate his was assistant coach Joe Amplo. “It was just that coach called a play and I was in the right position,” said Colleluori. “I just did what the coaches told us to do.”

Unterstein scored an insurance goal with 1:26 remaining. With the win all but sealed junior defenseman Connor Hagans went off on a penalty for an illegal body check.

“Last year the wheels came off a little bit in the game at Stony Brook. The coaching staff would be the first to admit that. Basically I told him to keep his cool,” Tierney said. “A lot of times the domino affect happens. So when I got to Connor I just whispered in his ear we need you, we need you and that’s the wrong way so let’s do things the right way.”

With UMass with the extra man for a minute, Orlando (13 saves) and his defense stepped up and stopped a last minute UMass attack. And as the clock reached zero the Pride charged the field and celebrated with each other, the members from last years team who was in attendance and most importantly Nick Colleluori.