The Hofstra men’s lacrosse team lost 12-11 to the Fairfield University Stags on Friday, March 18, at James M. Shuart Stadium. In their first Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) game of the year, Hofstra got off to a slow start.
“Really disappointed today,” said Hofstra head coach Seth Tierney. “I thought we let one get away. We weren’t as sharp as I hoped. We’re jumping into spring break, so we’ll have a little bit more time with the guys to watch film, rest and heal. Certainly some anger we didn’t win, and now you start to feel like you got to play with your back against the wall.”
Hofstra found themselves in an early deficit when Will Consoli and Jake Gilbert scored a pair of goals in the opening two minutes for the Stags.
The Pride scored two of their own to tie the contest in a high-scoring first quarter that saw a combined eight goals. Hofstra’s leading goal scored his John Madsen scored his 15th and 16th goals of the year to tie the game, one assisted by Matt Elder and another unassisted. The tie was the closest Hofstra got to taking the lead in the game as Fairfield added three before Rory Jones chipped in a last-minute goal for the Pride to close the quarter out 5-3.
“Offensively, we had opportunities, and we didn’t bury them whether we missed the cage or hit the pipe,” Tierney said.
To start the second frame, Justin Sykes received a pass from Elder and hammered home a goal to make it a one-score game. However, the Stags continued to stay on top of Hofstra by adding two more of their own from Bryce Ford and Jack McKenna, who found the back of the net while falling backward by bouncing a shot by Pride goalkeeper Mac Gates.
The Stages recorded 12 shots during the quarter and added another goal from Max Paparozzi before halftime. Hofstra got one back when Elder assisted on Sykes’ second goal of the quarter to make the score 8-5.
Elder registered four assists and one goal in the game while playing in place of Griffin Turner, who did not play after suffering an injury in the Pride’s last game against Syracuse University.
“He did everything we asked him to do to try and fill in that role at that point in time,” Tierney said. “He did his job tonight. I’m awfully proud of him.”
Coming out of halftime, it was evident that Hofstra had to find more scoring opportunities to keep up with Faifield’s potent offense and peppered Stags goalie Will Snyder early in the third quarter. The third went scoreless for almost ten minutes until Ryan Sheridan connected with a cutting Trevor Natalie who scored his third goal of the year, slicing the deficit to 8-6. Fairfield answered right back 30 seconds later when Rob Moore found McKenna all alone behind the Hofstra defense, where he easily won a one-on-one with Gates to increase the lead to 9-6. Sykes achieved a hat trick to bring Hofstra back within two, 9-7, before the final quarter.
Elder scored in the first 30 seconds of the fourth, inching Hofstra even closer. But after a cross-check to the head by Richie Hicks, Fairfield capitalized on a man-up advantage and scored again two minutes later to pad their lead at three with five minutes to play.
However, the Pride didn’t go away easily. Jones scored his second goal of the game with a minute left during a man-up advantage. Gerard Kane then gave Hofstra a sliver of hope when he scored his 11th of the season when it mattered most.
After a faceoff win by Chase Patterson, it looked like Hofstra was going to complete the comeback. With a clear lane to the net, Patterson took his shot, but Snyder made the clutch save. Hofstra maintained possession after a timeout and was ready to make another attempt at tying the game, but an ill-advised pass by Kane that sailed out of bounds sealed the Pride’s fate.
“We got our work cut out for us,” Tierney said. “These are tie-breaker games later on, and we didn’t get this one.”
Up next for the Pride is the unanimous pick to win the CAA, the University of Delaware, on Saturday, March 25, at 3 p.m.
Photo courtesy of Hofstra Athletics/Marc Levine
