By Stephen Cooney
In a game littered with physical play and big hits, an overly physical mistake by the Universtiy of Deleware Blue hens proved costly. With the Hofstra University Pride Lacrosse team holding on to a one-goal lead, a big check by the Hens’ Sean Kostkowski on the Pride’s Tom Dooley changed the tone of the game, but not for the Hens.
Kostkowski was given a one-minute penalty for an illegal body check while teammate Brett many was given a 30-second penalty for pushing. The Pride’s Dan Stein used the man advantage to put the Pride ahead 6-4 right before halftime.
“I don’t want to use the word ugly, but we knew the game was going to be off a little bit.” Head coach Seth Tierney said. “We knew there were going to be some man up and some man downs.”
The Pride were five of seven on the man advantage on their way to an 11-8 senior day victory over the Hens today at James Shuart Stadium.
“In practice we were emphasizing the man up.” Pride Midfielder Mike Unterstein said. “We practiced that a lot, the man up, because we knew it was pretty much going to decide the game, and it did.”
After the half, the Hens were able to add an early goal while on the man advantage to bring them within one, but the Pride responded with another extra-man goal to move ahead by two.
As the physical play continued throughout the game, the Pride’s Mike Unterstein was able to record his second goal of the game by bowling over a Hens’ defender and darting directly at the goal. Unterstein fired a shot past goaltender Tom Scherr to give the Pride an 8-5 lead.
After the Hens closed within one goal again, Unterstein was able to add his third goal of the game to give the Pride a two-goal lead.
“It is always a good feeling to be up by two. It gives the defense a little bit of a cushion” Unterstein said.
Unterstein’s offensive production was not limited to goals as he was able to record an assist on Tom Dooley’s second goal of the game. “I was able to feed Dooley, and he didn’t get absolutely annihilated on the crease.” Unterstein said. “It gave us a little bit of a cushion, and we were able to relax a little bit.”
Pride attacker Jay Card was able to add his third goal of the game and 21st of the season. Card closed the scoring more impressively than he opened it by scoring off of the opening face off. After being knocked down, Card whipped a shot past Scherr to give the Pride an 11-7 lead.
“I was cutting towards the net and Michael [Unterstein] fed me the ball.” Card said. “The defense put me on my but and I think he stopped the ball. Everything sort of went into slow motion, and I looked around, and everyone was pointing at the ball, so I did a little hockey shot.”