No. 15 Hofstra Needs Rally to Top Jacksonville
from press release
HEMPSTEAD, N.Y. -- Jay Card scored four goals
and Brad Loizeaux added three goals and two assists to lead a
second half rally as the 15th-ranked Hofstra Pride posted a 14-10
non-conference victory over Jacksonville at James M. Shuart Stadium
Saturday afternoon. The Pride improve to 8-4 on the season while
the Dolphins closed out their first season with a 6-7 mark.
Hofstra rallied back from a 9-6 deficit early in the third
quarter, outscoring their opponents 8-2 in the second half. Card, a
junior attackman, recorded his fourth hat-trick of the season and
scored three of his four goals in the second half. Loizeaux, a
sophomore who is having the best season of his young career,
tallied career-bests of three goals and five points. Freshman Aaron
Jones added two goals while classmate Adrian Sorichetti added one
goal and two assists. Sophomore Andrew Gvozden recorded six saves
in the Pride cage with five coming in the second half.
The Dolphins were led by freshman Ryan Serville with two goals,
classmate Nick Scalzo with two goals and one assist and Cameron
Mann with one goal and three assists. Senior goalie Brad Hester
recorded 13 saves in the Jacksonville cage.
The first half featured two lead changes, two tied scores and each
team holding several two goal advantages. The Dolphins got on the
board first 6:38 into the game as freshman TJ Kenary notched his
20th goal of the year from Nick Scalzo. But Hofstra would score the
next three goals-all unassisted-as freshman Drew Coholan posted his
third of the season to tie the game, Jones scored his fifth of the
year with 1:17 to play in the quarter, and junior Jamie Lincoln
notching his 32nd of the season with 32 seconds to play for a 3-1
advantage. Jacksonville defender Stephen Spindler scored his first
of his career five seconds later right off the face-off restart,
off a pass from Dan McNulty. But the scoring wasn't done for the
period as Card would score his first of the game and 24th of the
year, off a long pass from junior middie Tim Holman, with one
second to play to give the Pride a 4-2 lead at the end of the first
quarter.
In the second quarter, Serville and Jones exchanged goals in the
first four minutes to keep Hofstra ahead by two at 5-3. But the
Dolphins would then rattle off four straight goals and five of the
next six to take an 8-6 lead at halftime. It started with 8:39 to
play in the second with Mann scoring his 18th from Owen Green. Less
than 90 seconds later, Scalzo posted his 26th of the year, from
Serville, to tie the game. Freshman Donovan Lange then scored his
15th of the year 22 seconds later to give the Dolphins a 6-5 lead.
Sophomore Jake Ziegler scored his first goal of the season with
5:32 to play in the half to give JU its biggest lead of the game at
7-5. Loizeaux stopped the Jacksonville run with a runner from eight
yards out two minutes later. But Serville boosted the lead back to
two with his second of the game and 30th of the year on a looping
pass across the box from Max Gurowski with 18 seconds remaining in
the half.
The Dolphins added to their lead 29 seconds into the third quarter
when Scalzo scored his second of the game and 27th of the season on
the man-up from Mann. But Hofstra then ran off four straight goals
to take the lead early in the fourth. First, Loizeaux fought
through the Jacksonville defense for his second of the game and
17th of the season, and Card made a dodge to the goal for his
second of the contest and 25th of the year with 4:07 to play in the
third. Card would then tie the game at 9-9 with six seconds to play
in the period off a pass from Sorichetti.
Hofstra would break the tie 1:32 into the fourth quarter as
Loizeaux took a pass from junior Stephen Bentz and scored on a
runner in the middle of the box. But sophomore Jeremy Tissenbaum
tied the game for the Dolphins on a running bullet from 12 yards
two minutes later.
Hofstra senior Dan Stein gave the Pride the lead for good, taking
a pass on the crease from Loizeaux and scoring his seventh of the
season. Just 33 seconds later, Sorichetti scored his ninth goal of
the season on a bullet from 13 yards out, and sophomore Mike
DeNapoli tallied his ninth goal of the year, on the man-up, off a
pass to the crease from Jamie Lincoln for a 13-10 lead. Card closed
out the scoring spurt with 7:26 to play, off a pass from Loizeaux,
for his 27th of the season. Gvozden blanked the Dolphins the rest
of the way.
ofstHofstHofstra outshot the Dolphins, 36-26 and picked up 40
ground balls to Jacksonville's 29. The Pride also won 19 of 27
face-offs with freshman John Antoniades winning 11 of 12 in the
second half.
The Pride will return to action next Saturday, May 1 when they
host #14 Towson (6-5, 4-0) in a contest that will decide Hofstra's
fate in qualifying for the CAA Tournament that begins on Wednesday,
May 5. The Tigers clinched the number one seed in the CAA
Tournament with a 10-9 victory over Penn State (2-10, 1-3) Saturday
afternoon.
