Hofstra falls late to St. John’s in men’s lacrosse
St. John's University's Colin Duffy emerges from behind the net and gets ball past Hofstra's Brenden Lynch and goalie Jack Concannon during a men's lacrosse game at St. John's University in Queens, New York on March 24, 2018. Credit: Patrick E. McCarthy
For the second time in as many games, the fourth quarter was unkind to Hofstra’s men’s lacrosse team.
Colin Duffy scored the winning goal with three seconds left to lead host St. John’s to a 9-8 win over No. 19 Hofstra on Saturday at DaSilva Memorial Field. St. John’s scored the last three goals of the game.
Dylan McIntosh scored six goals on six shots in the first half for the Pride, which led 8-6 after three quarters.
“We started out OK but they kept hanging around,” Pride coach Seth Tierney said. “There were a couple of plays that we could have made to open it up a little bit and we just didn’t do it. Credit St. John’s for hanging in there. This was a tough one.”
It was the second tough loss of the week for Hofstra (4-4), which was tied with No. 12 Lehigh late in the third quarter on Tuesday, before allowing five consecutive goals, including four in the fourth quarter.
“We came out and needed to make a couple of plays early to open it up to a three-goal lead or even get to a four-goal lead,” Tierney said of the fourth quarter of Saturday’s game. “Their goalie made some saves today . . . and they got one more groundball than us. In a one-goal loss, one more groundball hurts.”
Mike Madsen scored for St. John’s (6-2) with 12:11 remaining to cut Hofstra’s lead to 8-7 and his twin brother Joe scored just over a minute later to tie it. Both teams then had multiple chances to go ahead before the Red Storm finally broke the tie. The Pride took the next four shots of the game but two went wide and the others were stopped by goalie Matt Hanley (12 saves).
St. John’s responded with a four-shot possession that lasted nearly three minutes, but it ended on a turnover and an ensuing delay of game penalty gave the Pride a man advantage with 2:02 remaining.
Hofstra failed to capitalize, as Hanley saved Brendan Kavanagh’s long-range shot with 1:41 left, setting up the final Red Storm possession.
The missed late opportunities contrasted with the Pride’s efficient play in the first half, which was keyed by McIntosh, a freshman from British Columbia.
“Dylan is doing a good job off the ball,” Tierney said. “They put a short stick on him earlier, then they switched off to a pole. Guys are looking for him because they know he can catch it and shoot it . . . We need to continue to find him.”
Kavanagh and Trevor Kupecky scored the other goals for Hofstra and Tierney’s son, Ryan, had three assists.
Hofstra was outshot 35-31 but got a strong game from goalie Jack Concannon, who continues to play at a high level. The senior stopped 10 of the 19 shots he faced and came into the game ranked 10th nationally in save percentage (.565).
The Pride opens conference play next Saturday with a home game against Towson.
