Gvozden Preserves Hard-Fought Hofstra Win
from press release
Freshman goalie Andrew Gvozden made seven saves, including one
in the waning moments of the contest, and sophomore attack Jay Card
scored two goals to lead the #6 Hofstra Men's Lacrosse team to a
6-5 victory over Sacred Heart on Saturday afternoon at Campus
Field.
The win was Hofstra's second straight, with its last win a 9-7
victory over #3 Princeton on March 14, and improves the Pride's
record to 4-1 overall and 1-0 in Colonial Athletic Association
(CAA) play. Sacred Heart, which saw its two-game win
streak come to an end, falls to 2-5 and 0-1 in conference play with
the defeat. Hofstra also improved to 8-0 all-time in the
series with the Pioneers.
Hofstra would get on the board first in the contest as senior
midfielder Michael Colleluori fed sophomore midfielder Stephen
Bentz for his second goal of the season to put the Pride up 1-0
with 10:45 left in the opening period. Timmy Katz would
tie the score up at one for Sacred Heart just over a minute later
before Hofstra took a 2-1 lead into the break between periods as
Colleluori scored off an assist from senior midfielder Anthony
Muscarella with 3:21 left in the first stanza.
The second period would be all Sacred Heart, though, as the
Pioneers scored twice in the period and held Hofstra to zero goals
in taking a 3-2 halftime advantage. David Gannon tied
the game at two with an unassisted goal with 2:43 left before Katz
notched his second of the game in exciting fashion, picking up a
ground ball and finding the back of the net as time expired in the
half. Zach Frank assisted in the first half efforts for
Sacred Heart as he made six saves in the first thirty minutes.
Hofstra would regroup after the intermission as freshman
midfielder Brad Loizeaux knotted the score at three with 11:06 left
in the third period off an assist from freshman midfielder Dan
Pezzolla before Card came from behind the net for an unassisted
goal with 5:57 remaining in the stanza to give the Pride its first
lead since 3:21 remained in the first period.
The Pride would keep a one-goal advantage until a pushing penalty
on junior defender Jake Born gave Sacred Heart a man-up
opportunity. The Pioneers would capitalize as Dan
Casciano fed Katz for his third goal of the contest to even the
score at four with under seven minutes left in regulation.
Hofstra almost immediately answered, though, as sophomore defender
Mike Skudin went nearly the distance of the field after getting a
pass from Gvozden to give the Pride back the narrow one-goal lead,
5-4, with 6:22 to play.
Card then scored what turned out to be a huge insurance goal with
2:15 left as Katz brought the Pioneers within one at the 1:16 mark
and Sacred Heart would have a chance in the closing seconds to
possibly send the game to overtime.
With 33 ticks left on the clock, Hofstra got whistled for another
penalty and the Pride would be forced to play a man-down for the
final few seconds. After a timeout, Sacred Heart would
get one final chance at the net but Gvozden came up big in the
final moments as he stopped a shot from the Pioneers' Evan Morgan
to preserve the victory.
Colleluori finished with two points for the Pride, with five other
players notching a point for Hofstra. Sophomore
midfielder Steven DeNapoli had a strong game defensively for the
Pride as he had four caused turnovers and three ground balls in the
game.
Frank finished with 13 saves for the Pioneers, who got eight
ground balls from Zach Smith.
Hofstra returns to action on Tuesday, March 24 when they travel to
Army for a 7 p.m. contest. That game will be televised
nationally on ESPNU.
