Amherst, MA – Sophomore Brendan Kavanagh scored his ninth goal of the season with 14 seconds remaining in the first extra period to give the Hofstra Pride a 10-9 overtime victory over the Massachusetts Minutemen in a Colonial Athletic Association contest at Garber Field Saturday afternoon.

The victory improves the Pride's record to 9-4 overall and 3-1 in the CAA and secures a spot in the four-team conference championships on May 5 and 7. Hofstra is currently in a three-way tie for first-place in the league standings with Fairfield and Towson at 3-1. Delaware is fourth with a 2-2 mark while Drexel is fifth with a 1-3 record. UMass, which is now 4-8 overall and 0-4 in the CAA, has been eliminated from tournament contention.

Kavanagh, who also added two assists on the day, came around the left side of UMass goalie Sean Sconone (13 saves) and beat the goalie for the game-winner and Hofstra's third overtime win of the season after wins over Princeton and Vermont earlier this year. The winner coach was set up by a forced turnover by the Pride defense deep in the Hofstra defensive end with less than 30 seconds to play in the overtime.

In addition to Kavanagh, Hofstra received two goals and one assist from both senior Sam Llinares and sophomore Dylan Alderman. For Llinares, his second goal gave him 27 on the season and 100 in his career becoming the ninth player in school history to tally 100 career goals.

Pride junior Josh Byrne tallied two goals while sophomore Jack Concannon made 12 saves for his ninth win of the year.

UMass was led by junior Brendan Hegarty with three goals while freshman Ben Spencer added a goal and two assists. Junior Gianni Bianchin and sophomore Noar Rak each chipped in a goal and an assist.

The contest featured five lead changes and six tied scores. The first half was 30-minutes of two goal runs as the Minutemen came out and scored twice in the first 14 seconds of the contest. Rak opened the scoring right off the opening face-off and beating Pride goalie Jack Concannon just six seconds into the game. Rak won the next face-off and fed Brendan Hegarty for his 12th goal of the year just eight seconds later for a 2-0 UMass lead.

But Hofstra righted the ship with Josh Byrne scoring his 27th of the year off a pass from Llinares just three minutes later. Trevor Kupecky tied the game with his ninth of the season, off a pass from Dylan Alderman at the 10:09 mark.

But the Minutemen regained the lead just 41 seconds later as Hegarty bagged his second of the game and 13th of the year for a 3-2 advantage. Alderman responded with back-to-back goals to give the Pride a 4-3 lead at the end of the first quarter.

Each team scored twice in the second quarter with Tyler Bogart and Spencer scoring for the Minutemen and senior Korey Hendrickson and Llinares scoring for the Pride to give Hofstra a 6-5 lead at halftime. Byrne made it three in a row for the Pride less than four minutes into the third quarter to give Hofstra its biggest lead at 7-5.

But UMass responded with a man-up goal by Bianchin and even strength goals by Hegarty and Dan Muller to give the Minutemen an 8-7 lead after three quarters.

Hofstra rallied with two goals in the middle of the fourth quarter with both started by Kavanagh. He first fed junior Zachary Franco for his sixth goal at the 6:38 mark and then fed Llinares for his 100th career goal with 3:30 to play in regulation and a 9-8 lead. But UMass' leading scorer, sophomore Buddy Carr sent the game into overtime with his 18th goal of the year with 23 seconds to play in regulation.

In the overtime, Hofstra got the first good scoring opportunity on a shot by Byrne that was stuffed by Sconone. UMass' possession in the overtime was deliberate until senior Finn Sullivan and sophomore Brett Osman combined to force a Minutemen turnover inside of 30 seconds setting up the game winning goal.

While Hofstra won the game, UMass won the battle on the stat sheet, outshooting the Pride, 33-32, picking up 33 ground balls to Hofstra's 29 and winning 12 of 22 face-offs.
 
Hofstra will return home to James M. Shuart Stadium next Saturday, April 30 for its 2016 Colonial Athletic Association regular season finale against the Tigers of Towson. Game time of the Senior Day affair is 1 p.m.