HEMPSTEAD, NY – The Hofstra men’s lacrosse team picked up their first loss of the season in a 10-8 contest against the Villanova University Wildcats on Saturday, Feb. 22, at James M. Shuart Stadium.
The Pride ended their three-game homestand with a 2-1 record to start the season.
The Pride came into this game looking to go 3-0 to start the season for the first time since 2017. Their last two games at home saw double-digit scoring with 21-11 and 12-9 wins against Wagner College and University of Michigan, respectively.
This season marked the appearance of some new faces on the field for the Pride. Whit Stopak started his first game of the season for the Pride, and Liam Muldoon and Tom Ford started in their first NCAA Division I lacrosse games.
The first quarter saw five goals in the first five minutes. Brian Herber started the afternoon by winning the opening face-off and scoring his first goal of the season 14 seconds in to give the Pride an early 1-0 lead. This was Hofstra’s only lead of the game and it lasted just one minute and 31 seconds as the Wildcats responded quickly with a goal from Patrick Daly.
This would be the first goal of Villanova’s 4-0 run, with other goals coming from Matt Campbell, Connor Kirst and Chet Comizio. The run would come to a halt thanks to Ryan Tierney’s goal with five minutes and 42 seconds remaining.
Tierney finished with his third hat trick of the season, recording the most points for the team. Despite this, Tierney said that the team missed many opportunities throughout the game.
“I think we got opportunities, we just didn’t bury them,” Tierney said. “Including myself – I shot very poorly today. [It’s] back to the drawing board.”
At halftime, the Wildcats led 6-4. Kirst would pick up his second goal of the game in the second quarter for Villanova, along with James Philbin and Corey McManus picking up their first. The only goal from that quarter for the Pride came from Dominic Pryor, who fired in a nice shot after a steal by Eric Wenz from behind Hofstra’s own net.
The second half saw four goals from each team, although the Pride outshot the Wildcats 24-20. Along with Tierney’s two goals to complete his hat trick, Dan DeSanti and Sterlyn Ardrey also put up one goal each. For the Wildcats, Kirst and Daly would finish with hat tricks as well. Sam Parkinson also scored his first goal of the season for Villanova. A late rally by the Pride was not enough, as they suffered their first loss of the season.
“Dylan McIntosh had a season-ending injury on Thursday. We wanted this one for him,” said Hofstra head coach Seth Tierney. “If he did play today, I’m pretty sure he would’ve been our heart and soul of [the] game.”
The Pride returns to action on Tuesday, Feb. 25, as they travel to northern Long Island to take on the Seawolves of Stony Brook University.
Photo Courtesy of Hofstra Athletics
