By Kevin Carroll -- SPORTS EDITOR In a showdown between two top-25 teams, the Hofstra men’s lacrosse team put on a tremendous defensive display, holding a very potent Ohio State offense to just five goals, en route to an 8-5 victory over the Buckeyes on Saturday afternoon.
Fans came out in droves to see the marquee matchup between the 14th-ranked Pride and the 20th-ranked Buckeyes, and the two teams did not disappoint, playing sixty minutes of physical, highly competitive lacrosse.
“I thought defensively, we really stood up,” said Hofstra head coach Seth Tierney after the win.
The Pride defense, anchored by Finn Sullivan, shut down the Buckeyes for most of the game, holding them to just two goals in the first three quarters. Goalie Jack Concannon continued his hot season, turning shot after shot away and compiling 14 saves on the afternoon.
On the offensive end, goals were also hard to come by for the Pride. The Buckeye defense keyed in on senior attacker Sam Llinares and transfer Josh Byrne, the two leading scorers for the Pride this season, limiting their productivity in the early going.
In their place, Brian von Bargen had one of the best games of his career, scoring a career-high three goals to lead the Pride. Korey Hendrickson added two goals and an assist, and Byrne was able to shake his defenders long enough to notch two goals, as well. Trevor Kupecky rounded out the scoring for the Pride with a goal, his fourth of the season.
The game really broke open in the fourth quarter, with six goals being scored between the two teams. By comparison, only seven total goals were scored in the first three quarters.
Hofstra was able to ice the game in the final quarter, with goals from von Bargen, Byrne and Kupecky giving the Pride a four-goal lead, its largest of the game.
Austin Shanks answered with a goal to cut the Pride’s lead to 8-5, but Hofstra was able to take possession and run out the clock on the Buckeyes’ comeback aspirations.
Hofstra opened the scoring in the first quarter with a goal from von Bargen, but the Buckeyes quickly tied it back up, courtesy of a Jack Jasinski shot that beat Concannon.
The two teams remained gridlocked for the rest of the quarter, as neither squad could find holes in the defense large enough to fire a shot on goal.
After Ohio State’s first goal, the Pride defense would hold them to just one goal over the next 42 minutes of play, smoking out every Buckeye attack on goal.
The lone goal in that span of time came from Ryan Hunter in the final two minutes of the second quarter. Hunter’s goal made it a 3-2 game heading into half.
Hofstra held the Buckeyes off the scoreboard entirely in the third quarter, and added goals from von Bargen and Hendrickson to stretch the lead to 5-2 heading into the fourth. The lead would prove to be insurmountable for the Buckeyes.
“Every little thing meant something to our guys,” said Tierney. “Two seconds to go, and Jack Concannon is diving out-of-bounds to preserve a possession. That’s a great sign of being locked in.”
“Coming into today, we knew what we had to do, and we left it all out there,” said Concannon.
The Pride improves to 4-1 on the young season, while the Buckeyes fall to 5-2.
Hofstra will return to action on Tuesday, Mar. 15, traveling to Suffolk County to take on Long Island rival Stony Brook. The Seawolves are 3-1 on the season, and possess the seventh-ranked scoring offense in the country.
“They’ve [Stony Brook] got some Canadian flair… they’ve got a couple of guys that could sling it a little bit,” said Tierney. “We’ve just got to be locked in.”