The Hofstra women’s lacrosse team lit up the scoreboard for 21 goals on Saturday afternoon, the most the team has scored in five years, as the Pride demolished Central Connecticut State University 21-3 at James M. Shuart Stadium.
“It was an exciting win for us, I thought the team played really hard,” said Hofstra head coach Shannon Smith following Saturday’s victory.
As part of a doubleheader with the men’s lacrosse team playing later in the evening, the Pride treated fans to some early fireworks. Hofstra scored 11 consecutive goals to start the contest and effectively putting the game out of reach before the Blue Devils could muster up a single goal.
Central Connecticut managed to put a stop to the bleeding with a goal from Marissa Soto with 13:38 left in the first half, but the Pride would go on to score three more times before the end of the half, putting the game on ice early.
11 different players found the back of the net for the Pride, led by senior Becky Conto with four goals. This was Conto’s second game in a row with four goals, and she sits at 16 total on the season.
Drew Shapiro and Morgan Knox each tallied hat tricks, and newly crowned CAA Player of the Week added two goals and a career-high five assists.
Lexi Lenaghan and Mary Kate Gerety each added a pair of goals for the Pride, and rounding out the scoring column were Samantha Torrico, Tessa Sinatro, Kaitlyn Shanahan, Alexa Mattera and Zoe Gomez.
Gerety, Sinatro, Torrico, Shanahan and Gomez all scored for the first time this season in the rout. Of those five, Gomez was the only one who had scored before the Pride, with the rest notching their first career goals in a Hofstra uniform.
“Being able to get a lot of different players and goal-scorers in there before conference play is huge,” Smith said.
This Hofstra offense has been in fantastic shape all throughout this season, and Saturday was no exception. The Pride scored over 10 goals for the fifth time this season; in those five games, Hofstra is 4-1, with the lone loss coming against Fairfield back in February.
Parrella’s two goals pushed her season total to 27, tied for third in the CAA. The freshman is one of only two players to average a hat trick per game in the conferencr, along with Elon’s Stephanie Asher.
On the defensive end, Hofstra goalie Maddie Fields made seven saves in 36 minutes of action, allowing just one goal before being taken out by Smith. Alexis Greene saw the remainder of the action in net for the Pride.
Soto had two of Central Connecticut’s three goals, with the other one coming from Jessica Giangarra.
Hofstra improved to 5-3 on the season with Saturday’s win, the team’s fifth in a row.
The Pride has just one more non-conference matchup before hitting CAA action, a matchup with Columbia University on Saturday, April 1, at 7 p.m.
