By Mark Walters
You could hear a pin drop in Margiotta Hall’s theater. Despite being more crowded than usual, it was deathly quiet before Pride head coach Seth Tierney arrived for the post-game press conference.
Four days. That’s right, four days after trouncing Villanova 10-3 at Shuart Stadium, the Hofstra men’s lacrosse team was stunned 9-7 at home in the CAA Tournament semifinals at the hands of the team it most recently beat.
“The credit tonight goes to the Villanova Wildcats,” head coach Seth Tierney said. “It kills me to say this but they wanted it more.”
Villanova outshot the Pride 33-30, and Hofstra picked up one more ground ball than its opponent. But the Wildcats won two more face-offs, 11-9 and had an 8-3 face-off edge in the second half, the half that belonged to Villanova.
“In the fourth quarter we struggled,” Tierney said. “Guys were starting to grip their sticks a little too tight and we just could never play loose.”
The Wildcats used a zone defense to slow Hofstra down, and it proved effective Wednesday night.
“Hofstra’s offense is extremely potent and powerful,” Villanova head coach Michael Corrado said. “They’ve got great shooters all over the field. We had to try something different so we threw a zone at them.” The zone allowed Wildcat goalie Andrew DiLoreto to get better looks at the shots. He only out-saved Andrew Gvozden 11-9, but it was far from a career night for the Pride’s freshman goaltender.
“Andrew’s a wonderful goalie,” Tierney said. “He’s allowed to have an off night. I would have liked him to pick a different night, but I don’t think it was his fault.
“I don’t blame any one of our guys on our team,” he said. “I take the blame. When you beat a team 10-3, it’s difficult to explain to 18-to-22-year-olds that you’re going to need to play harder just to win by one. I did not get that message across clearly enough.”
Nova outscored the Pride 4-1 in the final quarter, tying the game at seven with a man advantage courtesy of sophomore defenseman Michael Skudin’s pushing penalty. The game-tying goal came 14 seconds after the penalty was called. Just 32 ticks after the game was tied, sophomore attackman Mike Brennan gave Villanova the lead with 6:24 left to play. Kevin Cunningham scored less than three minutes later, cementing the upset victory.
Hofstra had opportunities after that, but they were squandered. Villanova will now face Towson in the CAA Championship game. Towson defeated Drexel Wednesday night 10-2 to reach the final.
Villanova’s Matthew Fritts led all scorers with four goals. Sophomore attackman Jay Card had three in his team’s losing effort. Senior midfielder Michael Colleluori had two assists, a team-high and tied three ways for the game-high.
The Wildcats caused two less turnovers than did the Pride, suggesting it was unforced errors that led to its demise. Tierney talked about a play when junior Tom Interlicchio was hit, rendering the Pride unable to make a clear.
“We had blinders on,” the coach began. “We didn’t have the coolness to survey the field and just make that easy play. Interlicchio doesn’t get hit and we clear the ball and maybe this press conference is different, but that’s not the case.”
The game was tied 4-4 early in the third quarter, but senior attackman Tom Dooley assisted Card with 10:03 left to play in the quarter to give Hofstra the lead. An almost scoreless seven minutes was broken when Dooley ripped an unassisted goal past Villanova goalie Andrew DiLoreto to take a 6-4 lead.
Redshirt freshman attacker Kevin Ford scored the Pride’s final goal of the game with 9:37 remaining in the game. The Pride led 7-5 then, but four unanswered Nova goals and 9:37 later, the Wildcats were jumping up and down on the 30-yard line in front of the home team’s bench, on its way to the CAA Title game.