By Max Sass, Sports Editor
The Hofstra men's lacrosse team, ranked no. 15 in the nation, had been eliminated from the CAA Tournament but entered Saturday's matchup with no. 11 Towson hoping to earn itself spot in the NCAA Tournament. The Pride did its job, defeating Towson 12-10 at Shuart Stadium on senior night on the shoulders of five goals by junior attack Stephen Bentz.
"It has been a roller coaster ride and I am awfully proud of how they responded," Pride head coach Seth Tierney said of his team. The Pride had lost its first two CAA games at the University of Massachusetts and Drexel University before beating Delaware at the New Meadowlands Stadium. The Pride fell to new CAA member Penn State in Happy Valley before hosting Towson.
Despite losing three of four CAA games and being eliminated from the conference tournament, the Pride still had hope for an NCAA Tournament bid going into the game against Towson but knew it must beat the Tigers. "It is not easy to play with a 200-pound orangutan on your back knowing that if you're done, you're done," Tierney said.
Junior attack Jamie Lincoln opened the scoring at the 9:10 mark with a behind-the-back shot for a goal. Towson answered less than 40 seconds later but the Pride used four different goal scorers to jump on Towson and take a 4-2 lead into the second quarter. The other three scorers early for the Pride were senior midfielder Tom Interlicchio, Bentz and sophomore midfielder Brad Loizeaux.
Freshman face-off John Antonaides won six of seven faceoffs in the first quarter and 17 of 25 in the game. Tierney called Antonaides a warrior postgame and praised him for his efforts.
The Pride and the Tigers each tacked a goal on in the second quarter to give the Pride a 5-3 lead entering the locker room at halftime.
Sophomore attack Kevin Ford scored his first goal of the game just one minute into the second half to extend the Pride lead to 6-3 before Bentz scored his third goal of the game to put the Pride up 7-3 with 8:15 to go in the quarter. Bentz scored two more in the third, giving him five on the game and the Pride had a 9-7 lead entering the fourth and final quarter.
Towson scored two straight goals to open the fourth quarter and tie the game at 9-9. Senior midfielder Dan Stein celebrated his final home game by scoring at the 4:31 mark to put the Pride up 10-9. After a strong defensive stand the Pride had an opportunity to put the game away after a Towson penalty at 2:43.
From about 15 yards out, Ford fired a shot past Towson goalie Travis Love that gave the Pride an 11-9 lead. "He put a great shot in," Tierney said. "It was a little bit of a screen shot and he went right in the lower corner and he did a great job."
Junior midfielder Steven DeNapoli tacked on one more goal for the Pride, who did surrender a final goal with nine seconds left, before winning 12-10. "When you have two teams getting into a cage fight and only one can come out, I am awfully proud that the white team did," Tierney said of the Pride, wearing its home white.
The Pride's RPI jumped to 13, tops in the CAA. Tierney hopes that his team hears its name called Sunday night but is keeping expectations low. "There have been a lot of times that teams are sitting in a room and their name doesn't get flashed up on the screen," Tierney said. "We have to be aware of that as well."
He did say though that he felt his team should be in and would be wishing with the rest of the Pride locker room that the NCAA selection committee agreed. "Hopefully at 9-4 with a couple of big wins, helps us out and gets us in," Tierney said.
(Sean M. Gates/The Chronicle)