Regina Volpe – STAFF WRITER The Hofstra Pride bested the University of Vermont Catamounts this past Tuesday at James M. Shuart Stadium. The final score was 13-12 after going into one round of sudden victory overtime.
This game was the first match between the two since 2001, and the win continues the Pride’s victory streak against them, now 9-0 all-time. Hofstra is now 5-3 for the season.
“I’m awfully proud of how resilient our guys were tonight,” said head coach Seth Tierney in regard to Tuesday evening’s win.
The Pride started the match off strong, getting five goals within the first five minutes of the first quarter. Senior Brian von Bargen earned the first goal of the game.
He, along with fellow midfielders Brendan Kavanagh and Korey Hendrickson and attacker Josh Byrne, racked up a total of six goals in the first quarter alone.
Vermont’s James Barlow managed one goal in the first, but their offense turned up the heat going into the second quarter.
While Hofstra still managed to score another in the second, Vermont continued to score to end the first half at 7-4 in favor of the Pride.
The Catamounts kept their momentum coming back from halftime. Goals from Mackay, Bartlett and Knight tied things up at 7-7 only five minutes into the third quarter.
A penalty on Vermont gave Hofstra the opportunity to break the tie with a man up goal by Kavanagh. Hendrickson stretched the lead further with his first hat trick of the season.
Vermont earned possession from a faceoff violation and scored to cut Hofstra’s lead to only one point.
They attempted to get some more shots in, but goalie Jack Concannon protected the goal to keep the Pride in the lead for the rest of the third quarter.
The final quarter began with a lack of shots coupled with a struggle for possession from both teams.
Hofstra scored with a goal by Sam Llinares, his first of the game.
Vermont, however, stepped up once more to take the lead; capitalizing on two man up goal opportunities. The Pride attempted to run down the clock and score a goal to tie.
With twenty seconds remaining in the contest, Byrne got the ball from Llinares to score and send the game into overtime. The match went into sudden victory
“That goal was just as big as VB’s [von Bargen’s] goal at the end because VB doesn’t score the game win without Sam [Llinares] and Josh [Bryne] making that game tie,” Tierney said on the play.
Hofstra won the faceoff, earning possession to start the overtime period. Two wide shots missed the goal but von Bargen got it in to get the win for the Pride.
Brian von Bargen was the top scorer for Hofstra with four goals total. Korey Hendrickson tallied three goals, Josh Byrne and Brendan Kavanagh with two apiece and Sam Llinares as well as Tyler Kupecky each scored one.
Ian Mackay also racked up four goals for Vermont, followed by Cam Milligan, Nick Bartlett, Bradien Davis, James Barlow, Cam Stafford, Michael Clarke, Karl Weller and Jack Knight all totaling one goal respectively.
The Pride will face Long Island rival St. John’s University (1-7) at SJU this Saturday, March 26th at 1p.m. This game will be the last of Hofstra’s non-CAA matches.