A potent offensive performance blew the Hofstra men’s lacrosse team past the Drexel Dragons Saturday afternoon, 16-8.
The victory featured three hat tricks for the Pride, whose dispersed effort saw nine players hit the back of the net.
The three hat tricks came off of the sticks of Alex Moeser, Ryan Tierney and Jimmy Yanes.
Moeser, whose hat trick was his first of the season, scored a career best of five points, equaling his career high in assists as well with two.
Ryan Tierney and Yanes, on the other hand, recorded their fourth and fifth hat tricks of the season respectively, each extending their consecutive game point streak to 10.
The Pride opened up the game with four consecutive goals. A quick response by Drexel that made it 4-1 in the 2nd only resulted in Hofstra hitting the back of the net three more times before the half ended, going into the locker room with a 7-1 lead.
“In the first half we had some good possessions defensively. And certainly, offensively we got the chance to put the ball away,” said Seth Tierney, Hofstra men’s lacrosse head coach.
Senior Dylan Alderman scored two of the goals in the first half for the Pride, while all of Moeser’s career-high five points came in the first half as well.
The second half consisted of a much stronger effort from the Dragons, with Drexel scoring seven more goals than they did in the first.
Opening up the second half scoreboard for Drexel was Matthew Varian, who had the assist on the Dragons’ first goal of the game.
Varian finished the match tied with a game-high four goals, adding two assists to lead the game in the point department as well with six.
The only other player scoring for Drexel was Reid Bowering, whose first quarter goal combined with his second half hat trick tied him for the game high goal total of four.
Though valiant, the concentrated Dragon attack was not enough to face Hofstra’s multifaceted offense as they were outscored in the second half as well, 9-7.
Hofstra outshot their opponent 40-25, with 27 of their shots being on goal compared to only 15 of Drexels’.
At net for Hofstra was Jack Concannon, who backed up the Pride’s stellar defense with seven saves, earning his sixth victory of the season.
“They had a couple big stops,” Seth Tierney said. “We’re going to have to do the same thing over and over again to be successful.”
Next, the Pride will face-off against the University of Massachusetts in their season finale with playoff implications on the line.
A victory in Massachusetts will send the 6-6 Pride on to the CAA tournament.
The deciding game will take place next Friday, April 27, at 5 p.m.