VILLANOVA, PA - Hofstra freshman Jay Card scored his third goal of the contest with just one second remaining in the second overtime to give the 20th-ranked Hofstra Pride a 7-6 come-from-behind CAA victory over the Villanova Wildcats at Villanova Stadium Wednesday night. The Pride, who won their second straight game, improve to 5-4 overall and 3-1 in conference play while the Wildcats fall to 3-8 on the year and 1-2 in CAA play.

Card recorded the fourth hat-trick of his rookie season, including one in each of his last three outings, and his third game-winning goal including two in overtime. On the winning tally, Card took a pass from Michael Colleluori, who was behind the cage, and fired a bullet from 10 yards that beat Villanova goalie Andrew DiLoreto (13 saves). Sophomore midfielder Tom Interlicchio added two goals for the Pride. Freshman Mike Brennan had two goals and sophomore Paul Webber added a goal and two assists for Villanova.

The Pride got on the scoreboard first when Interlicchio scored his fifth goal of the season 6:35 into the contest. But the Wildcats responded with three unanswered goals as freshman Mike Brennan and senior Tim Atkins scored goals 16 seconds apart, and junior Tim Driscoll gave Villanova a 3-1 lead on a goal with 26 seconds remaining in the first quarter.

Hofstra closed the gap to 3-2 just seven seconds into the second quarter when freshman Joe Montemurro won the face-off and fed junior Tom Dooley for his 15th goal of the season. But the Wildcats, like they did in the first quarter, tallied three straight goals, with Brennan, Webber and junior Matthew Fritts denting the twine for a 6-2 lead at halftime. Hofstra took just six shots while turning the ball over 11 times in the first half.

The Pride battled back in the second half with four straight goals to tie the game early in the fourth quarter. Interlicchio scored his second of the game and sixth of the season 52 seconds into the third period to cut the deficit to 6-3. Card notched his 16th goal of the year on a run around the cage with 8:50 to play in the third to close to 6-4. The Canadian freshman brought the Pride to within one 4:10 into the fourth, taking a pass from Interlicchio and beating Villanova goalie Andrew DiLoreto. Just 31 seconds later junior Anthony Muscarella tied the game with a goal on the run, his 12th of the year.

The Wildcats had a chance to break the tie with 2:50 to play in regulation when sophomore R.J. Lyons came around the right side of Pride goalie Danny Orlando and had a step on the Hofstra defense. But Lyons shot went wide of the cage. Villanova held the ball until the 1:09 mark when Pride junior Steve Prifte stripped a Wildcat attackman of the ball. After a Hofstra timeout the Pride set-up for a winning attempt but the pass was picked off by the Wildcat defense. But Villanova turned the ball over at midfield and Hofstra sent a quick pass to Tom Dooley, who fired a shot that DiLoreto made a leg save as time expired.

The first overtime featured great goalie play by both netminders. DiLoreto stopped Card twice in close and then stopped Mike Unterstein inside one minute. Orlando (10 saves) made a head save of a Lyons shot with 14 seconds in the overtime and then stopped a point-blank bullet from Tim Atkins with one second remaining in the first extra session. DiLoreto stopped Mike Unterstein on a wrap-around one minute into the second overtime, and the Wildcats had two scoring opportunities from inside the box in the last two minutes. But both shots were whistled wide setting up Card's heroics.

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2008-04-09