On Saturday, the red-hot Hofstra men’s lacrosse team won its 10th game – a university record – to start off its season, propelling the Pride to a 10-0 record after an 11-9 victory over CAA rival University of Delaware.
Star senior Josh Byrne took control of the game, tacking on four goals to aid in the Pride’s victory. Byrne brought his goal total to 29 on the year, which is good for second in the conference.
“We knew it was going to be a battle with those guys”, said Hofstra head coach Seth Tierney after the game. “[Delaware] lost their first game in the CAA so we knew we were playing a desperate group, but we showed at the end what we are made of. We’ll be sure to enjoy this win and go onto Drexel.”
Coach Tierney and his squad are well aware of where they stand amongst a stacked group of teams in the entire nation, but are even more aware that they have plenty of unfinished business to take care of for the rest of the season.
Hofstra was up 5-2 at the end of the first period after goals from Byrne, Ryan Tierney and a pair from Jimmy Yanes. But it was the fierce play of the Blue Hens – a team that handed Rutgers University its first loss earlier in the season – that kept Hofstra on its toes for the remainder of the game. After goals from Byrne and Alex Moeser in the second and third periods (respectively), Delaware finished the game on a 7-4 run to give Hofstra a scare before the final whistle was blown.
When asked to evaluate the team’s well-balanced scoring attack, Coach Tierney said, “We’re really trying to just focus on what the next team [we face] is going to do to us. Jimmy and a couple of other guys had a really great game, so I’m very proud of them and how we fought in a tough CAA battle.”
Both team’s offensive statistics were virtually identical, with Hofstra taking only one more shot then the Blue Hens. One of the biggest differences in the game was the turnover battle, which Hofstra won by a 13-9 margin.
Ryan Tierney continued his stellar first-year campaign with another well-rounded game, scoring once and assisting on two of Byrne’s goals to seal the deal for the Pride.
Hofstra will have a two-game homestand in which the team will take on Drexel University, and then the University of Massachusetts the following week, before the Pride wraps up its regular season against Towson University.