HEMPSTEAD, NY - Senior Michael Unterstein tallied three goals and two assists and freshman Jay Card added three goals and one assist to lead the 20th-ranked Hofstra Pride to a 11-8 CAA victory over the Delaware Blue Hens at James M. Shuart Stadium Saturday. The Pride, who won their third consecutive contest, improve to 6-4 overall and 4-1 in conference play while Delaware falls to 8-4 on the year and 2-2 in the CAA.

Unterstein equaled his career-best, first achieved against Sacred Heart in 2007, with five points on the day. Card recorded his fourth consecutive hat-trick and his fifth of the season. In his last four games the Canadian newcomer has notched 14 goals and four assists. Hofstra junior Tom Dooley and sophomore Dan Stein each posted two goals and one assist in the winning effort. The Blue Hens were led by sophomore Curtis Dickson with three goals and two assists while senior Vincent Giordano added three goals and one assist.

Card opened the scoring in the contest, just 13 seconds in, off a feed from freshman face-off man Joe Montemurro. The Blue Hens tied the game two minutes later when sophomore Martin Cahill scored his 24th of the year from J.J. Moran. But Unterstein scored a man-up goal from Michael Colleluori and junior Anthony Muscarella notched his 13th of the year from Unterstein to take a 3-1 with 5:01 to play in the first quarter. Giordano scored his first of the game and 15th of the year two minutes later to close the Delaware deficit to 3-2 after one period.

The Pride took advantage of Blue Hen penalties to the tune of five of seven on the man-up on the day, especially in the second quarter. Sophomore Dan Stein boosted the Hofstra lead to 4-2 with a man-up goal from Colleluori 4:10 into the period. The Blue Hens tied the game on goals by Cam Howard, his 19th, and Dickson's first of the contest and 39th of the year. But Dooley posted his 16th of the season, from Stein, on the man-up with 5:37 to play in the half, and Stein notched his 12th of the season, from Card, also on the man-up, two minutes later to give the Pride a 6-4 at halftime.

Dickson brought the Blue Hens to within one at 6-5 just 5:49 into the third quarter on his 40th goal of the year from Giordano. But Card scored his 20th goal of the season, another man-up goal, with 4:33 to play, from Dooley, and Unterstein scored an even-strength goal two minutes later to boost the Hofstra lead to 8-5. Delaware wasn't through and closed to within one in the fourth quarter at 8-7 on goals by Giordano, on the man-up, and Dickson, his 41st of the year, in the first 6:12.

Unterstein notched an unassisted goal 26 seconds later and Dooley and Card added unanswered goals in the next five minutes to boost the Pride lead back to four at 11-7. Giordano closed out the scoring with a man-up goal for the Blue Hens with 1:06 to play, Delaware, which outshot Hofstra, 24-14 in the second half, outshot the Pride in the game, 38-34. But the Pride won the battle of the ground ball with 33 to Delaware's 26. Hofstra goalie Danny Orlando made nine saves as did Blue Hen netminder Tom Scherr.

Hofstra, which closed out its regular season home schedule Saturday, has a half-game lead over the Dragons of Drexel (10-3, 3-1) in the CAA regular season standings. The Pride has Robert Morris (4-8, 0-3) as its final conference opponent on April 26 while Drexel will face Villanova and Sacred Heart in the next two weeks. Should Hofstra and Drexel tie with a 5-1 conference record, the Dragons would get the top seed and Hofstra would be second in the CAA Championship Tournament, that begins on April 30, based on the Dragon's 9-8 double-overtime victory in Philadelphia on March 29. The Pride will travel to #8 North Carolina next Saturday for a Noon contest.

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2008-04-12