Gvozden, Card lead Pride in lacrosse opener
Hofstra's Jay Card scores against Colgate during the season-oepner for both teams. (Feb. 15, 2011) Credit: Patrick E. McCarthy
The key to playing lacrosse in brisk weather must be staying warm.
Hofstra goalie Andrew Gvozden elected to play in sweatpants rather than the standard shorts, and who could blame him with temperatures near freezing.
No. 9 Hofstra brushed aside Colgate, 6-3, in a defensive struggle at Shuart Stadium in each team's season-opener Tuesday afternoon. The Pride, which has won eight straight games at home, scored its fewest goals since March 21, 2009.
Six different players scored for Hofstra, including Jay Card, who extended his consecutive points streak to 29 games, tied with two other players for the fourth-longest streak in the nation. Gvozden made eight saves against a deliberate Colgate attack that possessed the ball for the majority of the game, courtesy of an 8-5 advantage in faceoffs.
"To say that our defense is ahead of our offense is just not true," Gvozden said. "Our offense is incredible, we just got some bad looks today and they had the ball a lot on offense."
Hofstra did most of its damage in a 4:33 stretch toward the end of the second quarter when it scored four goals. Adrian Sorichetti gave the Pride the lead for good at 2-1 on a low speedball past Colgate goalie Jared Madison on an assist from Aaron Jones.
Card then scored off a feed from UNC transfer and West Islip native Ian Braddish with 2:13 left in the half, and 10 seconds later, Card assisted on Stephen Bentz's score. Kevin Ford ended the run with a hard shot from straight on the cage off a feed from graduate student Steve Serling, who played as an undergrad at Lafayette.
Pride coach Seth Tierney was pleased with his team's diversity on offense, but was hoping to paste some more goals on a Colgate team that went just 3-10 last season.
"I'm a glass half-empty guy," the coach said. "I'm thrilled that six people got credit and that six names will be in Newsday [today], but we need to pick it up offensively."
Brad Loizeaux got the opening goal of the Pride's season 8:31 into the game on a bounce shot from the right side. Brendon McCann tied the game at 1 for the Raiders and back-to-back goals by Andrew Mould brought Colgate to within 5-3 with 11:27 to play.
Said Tierney: "Lacrosse is a spring sport. Didn't it feel like the spring to you out there?"
To Gvozden, it probably did.
