By Elliot Rubin -- STAFF WRITER
The Hofstra men’s lacrosse team extended its winning streak to two games as they defeated the Drexel Dragons, 10-4, on Saturday night in Philadelphia.
Hofstra is now in a three-way tie for second place in the CAA standings with Towson and the University of Delaware.
The Pride started off the scoring at the 10:53 mark, when Korey Hendrickson scored on an assist by Brendan Kavanagh. Hendrickson’s goal was his 22nd of the season. Hofstra added another five minutes later when Josh Byrne assisted Brian von Bargen en route to his 24th goal of the season. The Pride led 2-0 after the first quarter.
Michael Kay, however, ensured that Drexel would not be shut out for long. A minute into the second period, Kay contributed his second goal of the season, cutting Hofstra’s lead to 2-1.
Later in the quarter, the Pride answered back with two goals of its own. The pair of Hendrickson and Kavanagh was responsible for another score as they extended Hofstra’s lead to 3-1.
Then, at the 5:27 mark, Sam Llinares delivered his 24th goal of the season, as the Pride pushed its lead further, going up 4-1 by halftime. Hofstra came out on the offensive to begin the second half and scored five goals in the third quarter.
Hendrickson started it all with this third goal of the day and his 24th of the season. A minute later, Byrne added his 25th goal. At the 5:55 mark, Kavanagh scored a goal of his own – his eighth of the season.
Two minutes later, Zachary Franco assisted Hendrickson as he added yet another goal – his 25th.
Byrne finished up the scoring in the third quarter for the Pride by adding another goal with one second left in the quarter, his second of the game and 26th of the season, giving Hofstra a 9-1 lead.
The Dragons started off the scoring in the final quarter. At the 11:20 mark, Matthew Varian assisted Nick Valentino’s second goal of the season. Drexel scored again nearly 30 seconds later, at the 10:54 mark, when Frank Fusco scored his fourth goal of the season.
The Dragons cut the Hofstra lead to 9-3, and it looked like Drexel still had time left to make up the deficit. Yet, they only scored one more goal the rest of the way. At 3:50, Llinares scored his 25th goal of the season and the second of the game, pushing Hofstra’s lead to 10-3, all but sealing the game for the Pride.
At the 2:05 mark, Drexel’s Jeremy Omrod scored his second and the final goal of the game, setting up the final score of 10-4.
Offensively, Hofstra had 20 shots on goal, with nine coming in the third quarter, the most per quarter in the game. In the first quarter, they had four shots on goal. In the second, they had five and in the fourth, they had two.
Defensively, Hofstra recorded nine saves, while Drexel had 10.
With the win, Hofstra improved to 8-4 on the season (2-1 in conference play), and Drexel dropped to 4-8 with the loss (0-3 in the CAA).
The Pride will travel to Amherst, Massachusetts, to battle the UMass Minutemen this Saturday at 1 p.m.