Hofstra falls in OT to No. 7 Notre Dame

A second straight men's lacrosse win over a ranked team was almost in the bank for No. 20 Hofstra Saturday.

But Holy Trinity graduate Sean Rogers dashed the Pride's hopes as he scored his third goal of the game with 2:41 left in overtime to lift No. 7 Notre Dame to a 6-5 win over the Pride at Shuart Stadium.

Hofstra (2-3) appeared poised to pull off the upset after sophomore attack Lance Yapor scored to give his team a 4-3 lead with 5:17 remaining in the game.

It was the third goal in an 18:52 span for Yapor, who helped the Pride overcome a 3-1 halftime deficit.

However, Notre Dame rallied and almost closed things out in regulation after Rogers' second goal gave the Fighting Irish a 5-4 advantage with 12 seconds left.

But Hofstra's Adrian Sorichetti found a cutting Torin Varin with 3.9 seconds left. Varin promptly found the back of the net from 20 yards to tie the score at 5 and force overtime.

Rogers came up with the answers for the Fighting Irish, however. His final two scoring plays were almost identical, according to Hofstra goalie Andrew Gvozden.

"I think we had the right slot," said Gvozden, who had seven saves. "Maybe we didn't have the help in the back side and he kind of popped off, sneaked in there and the next thing you know it's over."

Ian Braddish also had a goal and Sorichetti had two assists.

Jim Marlatt added two scores and Westy Hopkins chipped in a goal for Notre Dame.

Hofstra coach Seth Tierney lauded his team's effort, but had a few criticisms.

"I wasn't thrilled that we were down 3-1 at halftime until we really fought back and gained control of the game against a pretty talented team," Tierney said.

It was the second overtime home loss in three weeks for Hofstra, which fell to then-No. 20 Fairfield, 10-9, in a game that took three extra sessions.

Said Tierney: "You can't win close games -- and we're going to be in an awful lot of them right now -- without making those intelligent plays."