By Kevin Carroll – STAFF WRITER
After being stonewalled by Drexel’s defense for most of the second half, the Hofstra Pride women’s lacrosse team broke through, scoring four goals in the final 2:17, to propel the Pride past the Dragons by a score of 9-8 on senior day, and ensured that Hofstra would finish their conference slate of games unblemished.
Brittain Altomare played her usual stellar game, finishing the game with four goals.
However, it was defender Lindsey Alfano who managed to overcome a shaky first half performance to beat the Drexel goalkeeper with just 32 seconds left.
Thus, capping off a remarkable streak where the Pride rattled off four unanswered goals to come back from the brink of defeat against a very tough Drexel squad.
“A lot of credit to Drexel, I thought they played exceptionally well today… I thought we really dug in there with the last two minutes and thirty seconds, and we started to play Hofstra lacrosse,” said head coach Shannon Smith after the game.
Altomare, one of the six seniors playing their final game at Shuart Stadium, got the ball rolling for the Pride early, putting the Pride ahead 1-0 just under three minutes into the game with her 36th goal of the season. With the goal, Altomare became the all-time leader in points in school history.
“It’s a tremendous accomplishment for Brittain, she’s been such an unbelievable player for us,” head coach Smith said of her superstar after the game.
Drexel was able to answer, however, as four different Dragons scored the next four consecutive goals to give Drexel a 4-1 lead. After Carolyn Carrera made it 4-2 with her first career goal, both defenses began to take over the game, keeping the score right where it was for the next nine minutes, before Drexel’s Alissa Watts was able to bury one in the back of the net, giving Drexel a 5-2 lead.
The Pride fought back as the first half drew to a close, due largely in part to the efforts of Altomare, whom beat the Drexel keeper twice more in the first half, notching herself a hat trick and sending Hofstra to halftime down 5-4.
Morgan Knox tied it up at 5 coming out of the break, but then the Dragons answered with three more goals, pushing the lead to 8-5 with 10:41 left to play.
Drexel slowed the game down, stalling and bleeding the clock as much as they possibly could, and it seemed to work. But then something clicked in the Hofstra offense, as Lindsey Alfano scored a free position goal with 2:17 left to make it an 8-6 game.
Just 24 seconds later, after Altomare had won the draw control, Sam Lenox put one past the goalkeeper, and the deficit was cut to just one goal with 1:53 remaining. Altomare won the draw control again, and scored the equalizer with 1:13 left to play, sending the Shuart Stadium crowd into an uproar.
Due to a foul after the goal, Altomare was awarded possession of the ball and got it to Alfano. The junior defender navigated her way through the mouth of the Dragons’ defense, and with just 0:32 left on the clock, she snuck one past the goalkeeper, putting the Pride ahead, 9-8.
As the crowd went wild, there was still one more crucial face-off, and freshman Carrera managed to gain control of the ball, and seal the deal for the Pride, overcoming seemingly insurmountable odds to walk away with the 9-8 victory on Senior Day.
“I’m just really proud of the team, and really proud of the seniors, and I’m really happy that they get to leave their last game at Shuart Stadium with a W… but we need to get better heading into conference play,” said head coach Smith about her departing seniors.
Altomare led all scores with four goals, and Alfano added two more for the Pride, who finishes the season with an 11-6 record, and an unbeaten 6-0 mark in the conference.
Next up for the Hofstra women’s lacrosse team is the CAA Tournament. The Pride clinched the top seed with Saturday’s victory and will face the Towson Tigers in the semifinals on Friday, May 1. The CAA tournament action will be held on the campus of the University of Delaware.
