Men's lacrosse opens up conference play with victory

On a warm and sunny Saturday afternoon at James M. Shuart Stadium, the Hofstra men’s lacrosse team defeated the Towson Tigers 9-3. This was the first game of the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) schedule. Hofstra now holds a 5-4 record (1-0 in CAA play) while Towson drops to 3-6 (0-1) on the year.

“I’m certainly thrilled for our guys,” said Hofstra head coach Seth Tierney. “Last week was certainly a tough week with two losses.”

Hofstra was led by sophomore Ryan Tierney who tallied four goals and an assist in Saturday’s win.

“It’s all my teammates,” Ryan said. “They were finding me with opportunities that I was able to capitalize on.”

The first half was a defensive showdown between the two teams. The teams combined for only three goals in the first half.

Hofstra scored twice in the first quarter. Senior Dylan Alderman started the scoring for the Pride and Tierney followed suit about four minutes later, giving Hofstra the 2-0 lead.

Towson answered less than two minutes into the second quarter to come within one. There was no more scoring in the first half and Hofstra jogged to the locker room with a 2-1 lead.

The Pride offense came alive in the second half and scored seven goals in the final two quarters. Two of those came from Tierney with junior Jimmy Yanes, senior Brendan Kavanagh and freshman Dylan McIntosh also finding the back of the net.

Yanes set the tone in the second half with a goal less than two minutes into the third quarter. Towson answered to make it a one-goal game, but that did not last long as Tierney scored two goals in under one minute to give Hofstra the 5-2 lead. About one minute later, Kavanagh put one into the back of the net as well.

The score was 6-3 in favor of Hofstra after three quarters of play.

The fourth quarter was controlled by Hofstra. McIntosh scored his goal off a seamless pass by Tierney right in front of the net. A few minutes later Tierney recorded his fourth goal of the afternoon followed by Yanes scoring his second. This brought the score to 9-3 and neither team scored for the remainder of the contest.

Hofstra was able to overcome an 11-5 faceoff deficit in the victory. Freshman Brian Herber took most of the faceoffs for Hofstra.

“[Herber] did a good job,” Coach Tierney said. “He was over a lot of those balls. I’m awfully proud of Brian Herber. That’s a very good faceoff team, there’s no getting around it.”

Hofstra will host Fairfield University at 7 p.m. on April 5.