Hempstead, NY – The Hofstra Men's Lacrosse team will be looking to extend their 2015 regular season this Friday night, April 24 when the Pride face the Stags of Fairfield University at Rafferty Stadium in Connecticut. Game time is 7 p.m.
Pride Productions will have live audio beginning with the pregame show at 6:45 p.m. Anthony Santaniello and Nick Valastro will have the call for the radio broadcast on WRHU (88.7 FM). Live stats can be accessed at HofstraStats.com. Fairfield will video stream the contest live on FairfieldStags.com and a link can be accessed on GoHofstra.com
For Hofstra, it is relatively simple. Win at Fairfield Friday night and the Pride (5-8, 2-2) will get one of the four highly-contested spots in the 2015 Colonial Athletic Association Men's Lacrosse Championship, which will be held on Thursday, April 30 at the home of the CAA regular season champion. The championship game will be held at the same site on Saturday, May 2.
Heading into the final weekend of the conference season, the CAA Championship has eight scenarios that could come out of the results in the three league match-ups on Friday and Saturday. In three of the four possible scenarios that have the Pride winning, Hofstra will get the second seed. In the fourth, a five-way tie for first at 3-2, the Pride could walk away with the number one seed and the hosting duties, based on goal differential in CAA games. If a Hofstra loss occurs, the Pride season is over.
The Pride put themselves in the position of earning the number one or two seed with a resounding 9-2 victory over the 12th-ranked Tigers of Towson at Johnny Unitas Stadium. After jumping out to a 2-0 lead only to see the Tigers tie the game in the second,
Sam Llinares' second goal of the game gave the Pride the lead for good and started a run of seven unanswered goals.
Senior
Chris Selva, the CAA Player of the Week and the United States Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association (USILA) Defensive Player of the Week, entered the contest in the second quarter, after freshman starter
Jack Concannon broke a string on his stick and had to be replaced. Selva made 12 saves to earn his fifth win of the season.
Llinares posted four goals to record his fifth hat-trick of the season. In the process, he also topped his previous best single-season point total of 53 set last season. Junior
Korey Hendrickson and sophomore
Trevor Kupecky each tallied two goals while junior
Brian von Bargen added two assists.
The CAA results last weekend, which also included Fairfield's double-overtime win over Delaware and UMass' victory over Drexel (6-7, 2-2), leaves five teams battling for four spots in the conference championship with Delaware (4-10, 0-4) now being eliminated from contention. But the But Hens could play the spoiler role on Friday at UMass (4-8, 2-2). In addition, while Towson (9-4, 3-1) and Fairfield (8-5, 3-1) are currently the top two teams in the CAA and have clinched tournament spots already in every scenario except a five-way tie, that all could change Friday night in Amherst and Fairfield and on Saturday afternoon when Towson travels to Drexel.
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 32 goals and 24 assists. Senior
Mike Malave, who posted his career-best 28th goal of the season at Cornell two weeks ago, has 28 goals and four assists. He also ranks second in Division I with 10 man-up goals. Hendrickson has 13 goals and eight assists and freshman
Dylan Alderman has seven goals and 11 assists. Sophomore
Kris Clarke, who ranks first in the CAA and ninth in the country in face-off winning percentage, has now won 168 of 271 face-offs for a .620 winning percentage. Selva, who started 11 games this season, has an 8.07 goals against average with 100 saves and a .521 save percentage.
Friday's game is the sixth meeting between Hofstra and Fairfield. The Pride lead the series, 4-1. The two teams met last in Hempstead on February 25, 2014 with Hofstra topping the #17 Stags, 9-7. Hofstra and Fairfield squared off against each other in Fairfield on February 26, 2013 with the Pride posting a 9-2 victory.
The Stags of Fairfield enter Friday night's contest with an 8-5 overall record and a 3-1 slate in the CAA. Unless there is a five-way tie at 3-2, the Stags are guaranteed a spot in the CAA Championship, win or lose on Friday.
Fairfield has wins over Providence (10-6), Manhattan (15-4), Colgate (13-9), UMass Lowell (11-5), Villanova (11-4), Drexel (7-4), UMass (10-9) and Delaware (12-11 in 2OT). Their losses have come against Holy Cross (10-9), Stony Brook (10-9), Yale (9-8 in OT), Bucknell (10-9) and Towson (8-7).
The Stags lead the CAA in goals per game with a 10.08 average and are second in goals against average with a 7.54 mark. Hofstra is third in both categories, scoring 9.92 on offense and allowing 8.23 on defense.
Fairfield is led in scoring by senior Tristan Sperry with 19 goals and 22 assists. Junior middie TJ Neubauer leads the team with 28 goals and has added three assists while senior Colin McLinden has chipped in with 12 goals and 19 assists. Junior middie Charlie Schnider has recorded 17 goals and 13 assists and sophomore Jake Knostman has tallied 15 goals and two assists.
Freshman midfielder Will Fox, who has been named the CAA Rookie of the Week four times this season, has won 99 of 173 face-offs for a .572 winning percentage. While the Stags have split the goalie duties this season, sophomore Tyler Behring has started the last six games and has a 6.26 goals against average with 69 saves and a .633 save percentage in seven contests. Freshman Brad Nordstrom started the first seven games and posted an 8.53 goals against average with a .544 save percentage.
