Men's lacrosse suffers dramatic comeback loss on Senior Day

The Hofstra men’s lacrosse team suffered the same fate in their last home game of the regular season as the women’s lacrosse team did, with both teams falling by the identical score of 13-12 to their respective Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) rivals on senior day. For the men’s team however, their heartbreaking loss came at the back end of a fourth quarter collapse that saw them enter the quarter leading 11-8, then going on to give up five goals and score only one in route to the 13-12 loss to Drexel University on Saturday, April 21. 

Hofstra’s Ryan Tierney started his work early, scoring his first of five goals on the evening just a little over a minute into the contest. This was the first of Tierney’s eight points scored on the evening. 

At the 12:28 mark in the first quarter, Drexel got on the board off of a goal scored by Marshal King to bring the score even at one goal apiece. The Pride responded as Dylan Mcintosh later scored his first goal at the 9:58 mark, followed by Joey Elarde’s first of three goals on the evening at the 6:39 mark, bringing the Hofstra lead to 3-1. 

Neither team found the net for the rest of the quarter due to outstanding goalie play from both sides. Pride keeper Bobby Casey, in particular, provided two keys saves near the last minute of the quarter to keep the Dragons off the board and help Hofstra hold the lead heading into the second quarter. 

Drexel started out the second quarter on a better note, netting two goals in a little under five minutes of play to bring the score even at 3-3. Both teams then began to trade goals, with Tierney adding two more goals to complete the first half hat trick and freshman Nick Williams adding one of his own to enter the half with Hofstra leading 6-5. 

Tierney’s play became even more assertive coming out of the half as he tallied two more goals in the third quarter to give his team an 8-5 advantage, as well as five goals for himself on the evening. Drexel fought back and scored two quick goals just 20 seconds apart to bring their deficit to 8-7. Hofstra sophomore Bryce Tolmie then netted his first goal to extend the lead to 9-7 before the Dragons added another goal to their run to make it 9-8. 

This was the Dragons’ last goal of the quarter, as Hofstra went on to score two more goals off the sticks off Elarde and McIntosh, each player recording their second of the evening. 

Hofstra closed out the third quarter with all the momentum on their side, holding an 11-8 lead over their CAA rival at their home stadium. This is when the game took an immediate turn for the worst for the Pride, as just 14 seconds into the last quarter, Drexel junior Matthew Varian scored a goal for the Dragons and then dented the twine again over a minute later to trim their deficit to 11-10 with 13:34 remaining in the quarter. Both goals were man-up goal opportunities for Drexel which seemed to be a problem for the Pride all evening.

 “They scored seven man-up goals. That’s going to stick with me for a little bit,” said Hofstra head coach Seth Tierney. 

Drexel scored again shortly after to even the score at 11-11 with just under 13 minutes of play left in the game. 

Drexel scoring three goals in a little over two minutes seemed to take the life out of the Pride and the home crowd. They were in command for the majority of the game and once again, another fourth quarter spurt by an opposing team was underway. 

Drexel continued their onslaught as they scored two more goals to finally step out in front at 13-11 with 4:57 to play. Their five-goal run showcased a spread-out attack with multiple people finding the net to confuse the Pride’s defense. Hofstra’s Elarde scored his third goal of the game to complete the hat trick, but it was too late as the Pride took the 13-12 loss in their last regular-season home game to Drexel. 

“We knew we couldn’t give them man-up opportunities ... Their offense was very powerful, they were capitalizing on opportunities all year,” Ryan Tierney said after the loss.  

Ryan Tierney tied his career high with eight points on the evening, while Elarde recorded his very first career hat trick and Casey provided 13 saves for the Pride.

Hofstra is back in action next week Friday, April 26, in their last game of the regular season versus Fairfield University in Connecticut.

Photo Courtesy of Hofstra Athletics