HEMPSTEAD, New York - Junior attackman Jeff Zywicki tallied five goals and one assist and Chris Fiore added three goals as sixth-ranked Massachusetts remained undefeated with a 14-7 victory over 15th-ranked Hofstra Sunday at Shuart Stadium. The Minutemen improved to 7-0 while Hofstra evened its record at 3-3.
Mike Morrison, Ryan Vilar and Tim Treubig each scored twice to lead the Pride of Hofstra.
Massachusetts jumped on Hofstra early, scoring seven of the first nine goals to take a 7-2 lead at halftime. Neil Lundberg opened the scoring for UMass 5:15 into the contest with an unassisted goal. Zywicki scored his 19th of the season with 5:58 to play in the quarter, off a pass from Steven Byrnes, and Sean Morris scored an unassisted goal 2:22 later to give the Minutemen a 3-0 lead. Hofstra middie Mike Morrison put Hofstra on the board with a goal off a feed from Jim Femminella with just 28 seconds to play in the quarter.
Zywicki and Gene Tundo boosted the UMass lead to 5-1 with goals in the first 3:35 before Ryan Vilar scored his first goal of the season with 4:58 to play in the half. But UMass would score twice in the final 13 seconds of the half on unassisted tallies by Fiore and Zywicki, his third of the game, to start a 4-0 spurt and give Massachusetts a 7-2 lead at halftime.
Christopher Doyle and Tundo scored goals in the first 1:53 of the third to give UMass a 9-2 lead before Hofstra mounted a little rally, scoring four of the next five goals. Freshman tim Treubig scored his first goal of his college career with 8:35 to play in the quarter to cut the gap to 9-3. Fiore would scored UMass' 10th goal and his 17th of the year less than two minutes later before Ryan Lucas (3rd of the season), Vilar, and Morrison (his fifth of the season) scored goals in a 2:30 span to close the gap to 10-6. But Zywicki ended the Hofstra run with a goal off a pass from Byrnes with 2:19 left in the third to close out the scoring in the period.
Treubig scored his second of the game and season from Morrison 1:07 into the fourth to give Hofstra some hope at 11-7. But Fiore and Kevin Leveille would score goals in the following two minutes, and Zywicki would add an insurance goal midway through the period to shut the door.
The Minutemen outshot Hofstra 42-30 and were almost perfect in the clearing department, making 24 of 25 clears. Hofstra won 16 face-offs and picked up 35 ground balls to UMass' 27 but lost the battle on the scoreboard. Bill Schell recorded 10 saves in the Minutemen cage while Matt Southard made 12 saves but allowed all 14 goals for the Pride.
Hofstra will travel to Army on Wednesday at 7 p.m. while UMass will host Penn State on Saturday.
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