Yapor's 4 goals on 4 shots lift Hofstra

Lance Yapor essentially recruited himself on to the men's lacrosse team at Hofstra. After a quick meeting with coach Seth Tierney, the attacker from Illinois made sure to address his intentions in writing.

Saturday's season opener turned into the best day of Yapor's Hofstra career as the sophomore scored four goals -- on four shots -- and added an assist in an 11-9 victory over visiting Sacred Heart.

In 2009, Tierney visited near Yapor's hometown of Glenview to conduct a camp and stopped to watch a travel team. Yapor, a senior in high school at the time, was on that squad.

When Tierney returned to Long Island, the email arrived. "It said," the coach recalled, 'Don't forget about me, remember me.' "

Tierney did.

"Coach T emailed me back saying he was interested," Yapor said. "I came out for a visit and fell in love with the place."

Yapor went to prep school in Salisbury, Conn., to hone his skills and Tierney kept an eye on him. His freshman season at Hofstra got off to a difficult start when a preseason knee injury limited him to six games. He ended the season with two goals and three assists, all against Massachusetts. "He gave a little bit of a slide show against UMass," Tierney said.

On Saturday, Yapor gave a big highlight reel.

His first goal tied the score at 4 with 5:54 left in the second period. He really went to work in the second half, scoring two unassisted goals within 27 seconds to give the Pride a 9-6 lead after three periods. When Cody Marquis and Shane Foley scored to bring Sacred Heart within a goal, Yapor responded with his fourth goal, on a pass from Torin Varn, to put Hofstra ahead 10-8 with 8:57 left.

"We have a young team," Yapor said, "so I wanted to come out and get a win. I don't really worry about getting points. At times, I do feel like we need a goal, we're maybe up by one, I've just got to go to the cage and score."

By the way, Yapor emailed other schools, too. "I'm sure there were a lot of other coaches who saw Lance," Tierney said, "and after they see the boxscore, they'll say, 'I know that guy. I didn't call him back or email him back.' "

Yapor originally was headed to a Division III college in Michigan. He's glad Hofstra wanted him. "Lacrosse is the biggest thing in my life," he said. "I didn't want to have any regrets that I didn't play Division I."

Notes & quotes: Adrian Sorichetti and Aaron Jones each scored two goals for Hofstra. Goalkeeper Andrew Gvozden had 11 saves. No. 14 Hofstra plays at No. 16 Princeton on Saturday.