By Joe Pantorno, Assistant Sports Editor
Dropping to 0-2 in the conference and to tenth in the national polls, Hofstra needed to wake up from the nightmare that was a 11-13 loss to Drexel on Saturday. Luckily for the Pride, lacrosse is a game of redemption and when Manhattan College came to Shuart Stadium, the Pride made sure not to let this one slip away.
Hofstra came flying out of the gates jumping on the Manhattan defense early and scoring often. The Pride scored six goals each in the first two quarters of play and Hofstra took care of the Jaspers 18-2. “I thought we played well,” said head coach Seth Tierney. “I was happy for a bunch of our guys, I was happy for our team. A lot of guys were in the scoring column, which was great to see.”
The Pride had eleven different scorers find the net including four from junior attacker Jamie Lincoln and a hat trick from freshman attacker Aaron Jones. Jones’ three goals and the teams’ distribution of scoring was something that Tierney enjoyed seeing. “I’m thrilled for those guys. There are familiar names on the score sheet, but to see Aaron Jones, a guy who put up three goals, I’m thrilled for him.”
With the scoring usually reserved for the Ontario Onslaught (Lincoln and junior attacker Jay Card), and defenses across the nation zeroing in on them, Jones had space to roam around the cage. “There’s always going to be a lot of focus on Jay Card and Lincoln,” said Jones. “They’re unbelievable players and we expect that going in every time. We were going to take what the defense gives us.”
The offense was not the only unit worth applauding as the Pride defense kept Manhattan at bay. When the Jaspers did create an occasional chance, sophomore goalie Andrew Gvozden kept the ball out of the net making the most difficult of saves look routine. “I’m seeing the ball well,” commented Gvozden. “I’m more of a game goalie than a practice goalie. These guys [the defense] make it easy on me to see the ball.”
Leading the defense was freshman defender Cody Solaja who was determined to not let the results of Saturday repeat itself. “We worked on the things that we didn’t do this past Saturday,” Solaja explained. “We came here, me, Mike [Skudin] and Christian [Scuderi] and we communicated more than we have in the past. Communication was key.”
With the Big City Classic against conference rival Delaware looming on Saturday at the new Meadowlands Stadium, Tierney is still not over the hole that the team has dug themselves into. “It’s going to take 5-7 years to get over the Drexel game. I’m not here to lose,” said Tierney.

Sophomore midfielder Brad Loizeaux dodges a Manhattan defender in the Pride’s 18-2 victory over the Jaspers at Shuart Stadium. (Josh Zager/ The Chronicle)