Hempstead, NY - As the Colonial Athletic Association regular season enters its final two weekends, the Hofstra Men's Lacrosse team will begin its push for a spot in the four-team CAA Championship this Saturday, April 18 at 12th-ranked Towson University. Game time at Johnny Unitas Stadium is 12 p.m.

Pride Productions will have live audio and video beginning with the pregame show at 11:45 a.m. Anthony Santaniello and Anders Jorstad will have the call for the radio broadcast on WGCH (1490 AM). Live stats can be accessed at HofstraStats.com.

With two games remaining in the conference regular season, Hofstra is in a fourth-place tie with Massachusetts with a 1-2 CAA slate. UMass holds the tie-breaker advantage over the Pride based on their 9-7 win on March 21. But like in past years, a lot can happen in the final two weekends as Hofstra will face the top two teams in the CAA standings in Towson (9-3, 3-0) this week and at Fairfield (7-5, 2-1), which is currently second in the standings, on April 24. Drexel (6-6, 2-1) is tied with Fairfield for second with UMass and Towson remaining on their schedule. UMass (3-8, 1-2) will host Delaware (4-9, 0-3) on April 25 after hosting UMass this Saturday. The CAA Championship will be held at the site of the regular season champion with semifinals on Thursday, April 30 and the final on Saturday, May 2.
 
Hofstra (4-8) is coming off a 14-5 loss at 10th-ranked Cornell last Saturday. After the Pride scored the game's first two goals, the Big Red scored the next four to take a 4-2 lead after one quarter. The two teams split the next six goals in the second and early in the third before Cornell tallied the final seven goals. Hofstra junior Sam Llinares recorded a goal and two assists and senior Mike Malave and sophomore Zachary Franco each tallied a goal and an assist to lead the Pride. Freshman goalie Jack Concannon made eight saves in his starting debut in the cage for the Pride. Llinares became the first Hofstra player to record 50 points or more in consecutive seasons since Tom Kessler did it in 2000 and 2001.

Hofstra continues to be led in scoring by Llinares, who leads the CAA in goals, assists and points per game. The Tewaaraton Trophy candidate has a career-high 28 goals and 24 assists as he closes in on his career-high of 32 assists and 53 points which were both achieved last season. Malave, who posted his career-best 28th goal of the season at Cornell, has 28 goals and four assists. He also ranks second in Division I with 10 man-up goals. Junior Korey Hendrickson has 11 goals and eight assists and freshman Dylan Alderman has seven goals and 11 assists. Kris Clarke, who ranks first in the CAA and ninth in the country in face-off winning percentage, has now won 162 of 257 face-offs for a .630 winning percentage. Concannon, who has started one game and played in three this season, now has an 11.29 goals against average and nine saves. Senior Chris Selva, who started 11 games this season, has an 8.43 goals against average with 88 saves and a .494 save percentage.

Saturday's game is the 46th meeting between Hofstra and Towson in a series that started in 1961. Hofstra holds a 25-20 series lead and has won five of the last seven and seven of the last 10 encounters. The two teams last met on March 29, 2014 in Hempstead with the Pride winning, 9-7. The Pride and the Tigers last met in Towson on March 30, 2013 with the Tigers posting a 7-6 victory over the Pride.

The 12th-ranked Tigers of Towson enter Saturday's game against the Pride with a 9-3 overall record and a 3-0 slate in the CAA following their 8-7 victory over Fairfield in Connecticut last Saturday. The Tigers have wins over Johns Hopkins (7-5), Georgetown (9-6), Mount St. Mary's (7-4), UMBC (11-7), Hobart (9-6), Binghamton (9-8), UMass (6-3), Delaware (12-7) and Fairfield. The Towson losses have come against Loyola (15-11), Navy (8-7 in 3OT) and Ohio State (7-6).
 
Towson, which is stingy on defense and makes few mistakes on offense, is first in the CAA and third in the country in scoring defense, allowing 6.92 goals per game. The Tigers are first in the country in fewest turnovers committed at 11.08 per contest.

The Towson defense is led by junior Tyler White, who ranks first in the CAA and second in the country in goals against average with a 6.74 mark. He is also fourth in Division I with a .605 save percentage. The Tiger defense ranks first in the CAA in man-down defense, allowing just 10 goals in 33 situations for a .303 percentage.

The Towson offense is led by sophomore Joe Seider, who has tallied 26 goals and five assists. Junior Spencer Parks has added 15 goals and 12 assists while sophomore Ryan Drenner has contributed 13 goals and 11 assists. Senior Andrew Hodgson has chipped in 15 goals and four assists and classmate Max Siskind has added 11 goals.