Mike Unterstein tallied two goals and three assists and Mike Colleluori and Ryan Miller each posted three points as the Hofstra Pride defeated the Sacred Heart Pioneers 10-8 in a CAA game at Campus Field Wednesday afternoon. The Pride, who has won three of their last four outings, improve to 4-5 on the season and evened their conference mark at 2-2. The Pioneers fall to 2-6 overall and 1-3 in the CAA.
After Sacred Heart's Bobby Rushton opened the scoring 6:02 into the contest, the Pride scored the next four goals. Mike Unterstein started the run a little over a minute later, coming around the cage to tally his sixth of the season. Kevin Unterstein gave the Pride a 2-1 lead 13 seconds later with his first goal of the season from five yards out. Miller made it 3-1 with his ninth of the year, on a charge from behind the cage, 44 seconds later. Colleluori notched his 11th goal of the year and his sixth man-up goal, off a pass from Mike Unterstein, with 4:11 to play in the first. Sacred Heart's Peter Greco and Evan Morgan sandwiched a Pride goal by freshman Tom Interlicchio in the final 3:04 of the quarter to bring the Pioneers to 5-3 down after one period.
The Pride and the Pioneers exchanged goals for the next two periods with Sacred Heart closing to within one twice. Mike Unterstein boosted the Pride lead to 6-3 five minutes into the second quarter with a man-up goal from five yards out, after a dodge. Tony Tanzi got the goal back for the Pioneers on a pass across the goal area from Greco with 3:35 to play in the half. Hofstra senior Zach Heyl notched his third of the season off a pass from Mike Unterstein with 1:39 in the quarter to boost the Pride lead to 7-4. But Michael Collins slipped behind the Pride defense with 20 seconds to play, took a pass from Nicholas Russo, and beat Hofstra goalie Danny Orlando (8 saves) from on the crease to close out the scoring in the half.
Colleuori posted his second of the game, off a pass from Miller, just 2:08 into the third quarter to give the Pride an 8-5 advantage. But the Pioneers battled back behind goals from Greco and Tanzi, just 48 seconds apart, to close the deficit to 8-7 with 5:40 to play in the third period. Pride sophomore Tom Dooley tallied his 13th goal of the season, and his third man-up goal of the year, from seven yards out in front of the cage, off a pass from Mike Unterstein with 26 seconds to play to boost the Hofstra lead to 9-7 entering the fourth quarter.
The Pioneers made things interesting with a man-up goal, from a carry-over penalty, 20 seconds into the fourth quarter as Rory Morse beat Orlando low to cut the deficit to 9-8. But Colleluori notched his first college hat-trick with his third of the game, off a pass from Miller, from 11 yards out, to boost the lead to 10-8 with 10:37 to play. From that point on, it was all defense as the Pride climbed back into the CAA race heading into their Saturday tilt at Towson.
The Pride outshot the Pioneers 38-22 and picked up 37 ground balls to Sacred Heart's 22. Hofstra defender Adam Swarsen picked up seven ground balls as did midfielder Vinny D'Angelo, who catured 10 of 17 face-offs. The Pride won 13 of 21 draws on the day. Sacred Heart goalie Ricardo Vargas posted 15 saves in the contest, including nine in the first half, and kept the Pioneers in the game.
Hofstra, now 2-2 in the CAA, travels to the 14th-ranked Towson Tigers (6-3 overall, 3-0 on the CAA) on Saturday at 1 p.m. Drexel (8-3, 2-0), who will face the Pride on Long Island on April 28, is in second place with Delaware (6-4, 1-1), Villanova (5-4, 1-1) and, now the Pride tied with .500 conference marks.
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