Fairfield, CT -- Freshman goalie Andrew Gvozden made seven saves, including one in the waning moments of the contest, and sophomore attack Jay Card scored two goals to lead the #6 Hofstra men's lacrosse team to a 6-5 victory over Sacred Heart on Saturday afternoon at Campus Field.

The win was Hofstra's second straight, with its last win a 9-7 victory over #3 Princeton on March 14, and improves the Pride's record to 4-1 overall and 1-0 in Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) play. Sacred Heart, which saw its two-game win streak come to an end, falls to 2-5 and 0-1 in conference play with the defeat. Hofstra also improved to 8-0 all-time in the series with the Pioneers.

Hofstra would get on the board first in the contest as senior midfielder Michael Colleluori fed sophomore midfielder Stephen Bentz for his second goal of the season to put the Pride up 1-0 with 10:45 left in the opening period. Timmy Katz would tie the score up at one for Sacred Heart just over a minute later before Hofstra took a 2-1 lead into the break between periods as Colleluori scored off an assist from senior midfielder Anthony Muscarella with 3:21 left in the first stanza.

The second period would be all Sacred Heart, though, as the Pioneers scored twice in the period and held Hofstra to zero goals in taking a 3-2 halftime advantage. David Gannon tied the game at two with an unassisted goal with 2:43 left before Katz notched his second of the game in exciting fashion, picking up a ground ball and finding the back of the net as time expired in the half. Zach Frank assisted in the first half efforts for Sacred Heart as he made six saves in the first thirty minutes.

Hofstra would regroup after the intermission as freshman midfielder Brad Loizeaux knotted the score at three with 11:06 left in the third period off an assist from freshman midfielder Dan Pezzolla before Card came from behind the net for an unassisted goal with 5:57 remaining in the stanza to give the Pride its first lead since 3:21 remained in the first period.

The Pride would keep a one-goal advantage until a pushing penalty on junior defender Jake Born gave Sacred Heart a man-up opportunity. The Pioneers would capitalize as Dan Casciano fed Katz for his third goal of the contest to even the score at four with under seven minutes left in regulation.

Hofstra almost immediately answered, though, as sophomore defender Mike Skudin went nearly the distance of the field after getting a pass from Gvozden to give the Pride back the narrow one-goal lead, 5-4, with 6:22 to play.

Card then scored what turned out to be a huge insurance goal with 2:15 left as Katz brought the Pioneers within one at the 1:16 mark and Sacred Heart would have a chance in the closing seconds to possibly send the game to overtime.

With 33 ticks left on the clock, Hofstra got whistled for another penalty and the Pride would be forced to play a man-down for the final few seconds. After a timeout, Sacred Heart would get one final chance at the net but Gvozden came up big in the final moments as he stopped a shot from the Pioneers' Evan Morgan to preserve the victory.

Colleluori finished with two points for the Pride, with five other players notching a point for Hofstra. Sophomore midfielder Steven DeNapoli had a strong game defensively for the Pride as he had four caused turnovers and three ground balls in the game.

Frank finished with 13 saves for the Pioneers, who got eight ground balls from Zach Smith.

Hofstra returns to action on Tuesday, March 24 when they travel to Army for a 7:00 p.m. contest. That game will be televised nationally on ESPNU.

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2009-03-21