Hofstra's Ford Impresses in Return from Injury
from press release | Big City Classic Blog
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- Jay Card and Kevin
Ford each scored three goals and Stephen Bentz added two to lead
the 10th-ranked Hofstra Pride to a 12-11 CAA victory over the
Delaware Blue Hens in the Konica-Minolta Big City Classic at the
New Meadowlands Stadium Saturday afternoon. The Pride, who won
their second consecutive game, improve to 7-3 on the year and 1-2
in the CAA. Delaware, which dropped its second consecutive game,
fall to 5-6 overall and 0-2 in league play.
Card, a junior, tallied a game-high six points on three goals and
three assists with classmate Bentz adding two goals and two
assists. Ford, a sophomore who returned to action after missing the
previous two games with a foot injury, scored three goals and added
one assist. Hofstra sophomore goalie Andrew Gvozden stopped 11
shots in the Pride cage for his second win of the year. The Blue
Hens of Delaware were led by senior Curtis Dickson with four goals
while senior Martin Cahill added two assists. Junior Noah Fossner
made 10 saves in the Blue Hens' cage.
The first half featured four lead changes and five tied scores.
The Pride would use a five-goal run near the end of the first half
and into the third quarter to pull away from the Blue Hens. Ford
opened the scoring in the contest 6:11 into the first quarter
recording his seventh of the season, on a bullet from the middle of
the box, for a 1-0 lead. But the Blue Hens responded with three
unanswered goals as Dickson notched his 39th and 40th goals of the
year around a Nick Elsmo goal to give Delaware a 3-1 lead
with 4:37 to play in the first quarter. Card would notch his first
of the game and 20th of the season with 1:04 to play in the period
to close the deficit to 3-2 after one quarter.
Dickson boosted the Blue Hens' lead back to two at 4-2 with a
man-up goal, from Cahill, 53 seconds into the second quarter before
Hofstra scored unanswered goals by Ford, Bentz and freshman Adrian
Sorichetti, in a three minute span, to take a 5-4 lead. But the
Blue Hens came right back with sophomore Grant Kaleikau scoring his
ninth of the year at the 6:58 mark and John Austin notching his
ninth 37 seconds later to give UD a 6-5 advantage.
Hofstra's high-scoring junior Jamie Lincoln tallied his 29th goal
of the year, from Card, with 4:03 to play in the half to tie the
game before the Blue Hens' Chris Hichborn scored his eighth goal of
the year less than a minute later to give Delaware a 7-6 lead. It
would be the Blue Hens last lead of the contest as Bentz would
score a man-up goal, from Card, with 27 seconds to play in the
half, and Card would score his second of the game and 21st of the
year, from freshman face-off man John Antoniades, seven seconds
later to give the Pride an 8-7 lead at halftime.
In the third quarter, Ford continued the Hofstra run with a man-up
goal from Card 30 seconds in and Card completed his third hat-trick
of the year seven minutes later, from Bentz, to boost the Pride
lead to 10-7. Sophomore Brad Loizeaux added his 13th of the season
with 5:59 to play in the third to give Hofstra the biggest lead of
the game at 11-7. Dickson would score his 42nd just 35 second
before the end of the quarter to close the Delaware gap to
11-8.
Hofstra senior Dan Stein gave the Pride a four-goal lead 2:34 into
the fourth quarter with his sixth goal of the year. The Blue Hens
closed on goals by Kevin Kaminski at the 6:38 mark and Dom
Sebastian 21 seconds later to close to 12-10. But Taylor Burns'
first goal of the season with two seconds remaining was not enough
as the Pride posted its fourth straight victory over their longtime
conference rivals. Hofstra now leads the series, 23-10.
The Pride outshot Delaware, 34-33, with the Blue Hens picking up
31 ground balls to Hofstra's 29. Delaware also captured 19 of 27
face-offs.
Hofstra, the CAA preseason favorite, will be looking to keep its
conference tournament qualification hopes alive when the Pride
return to action next Saturday, April 17 when they travel to State
College, Pennsylvania to face Penn State. Game time is 7:30 p.m.
