Hofstra men’s lacrosse traveled to Newark, Delaware to take on CAA rival University of Delaware Fightin’ Blue Hens in a must-win situation. The Pride were able to claim their first CAA win of the 2015 campaign, thanks to several players stepping up offensively.
Last week, both teams fell to talented opponents. The Pride lost their CAA opener against the UMass Minutemen 9-7 at home while the Fightin’ Blue Hens dropped one at Delaware Stadium against the Saint Joseph’s University Hawks 14-6.
Senior midfielder Brian Kormondy, who leads Delaware in assists and points, has been the dominating force behind the Fightin’ Blue Hens’ offense the entire season and wasn’t afraid to show Hofstra early on. A little under four minutes into the game, Kormondy scored the first goal of the game to put Delaware up 1-0. He would provide most of the offense for the Fightin’ Blue Hens with two more goals.
Prior to the game, Coach Seth Tierney decided to change the lineup before the game. Instead of sophomore attacker Brier Davis starting with junior Sam Llinares and freshmen Brendan Kavanagh, Coach Tierney decided to give the start to sophomore Zachary Franco, who achieved the first goal of his career in the loss against UMass. The decision proved effective, as Franco scored two goals to give the Pride a 2-1 lead at the end of the first quarter.
The second quarter belonged to senior midfielder Mike Malave. He would score three goals to put the Pride up 5-1. Kormondy would try to keep the Pride within striking distance by adding his second goal of the game to trim the lead to 5-2, but Llinares would neutralize that goal with his team-leading 25th on the season. The second quarter would end 6-2 in favor of Hofstra.
The Fightin’ Blue Hens fought as hard as they could to stay in the game in the third quarter. The beginning of the second half opened with Steve Delargy’s second goal of the season to cut the lead to three and Kormondy would contribute his third goal of the game to bring Delaware to within two. Unfortunately, senior midfielder Korey Hendrickson would score his ninth goal of the 2015 campaign to put Hofstra back up by three goals. By then, the lead was to insurmountable for the Fightin’ Blue Hens to overcome, even after a goal by Beau Jones, as Llinares would score his second goal of the game and Malave would contribute his fourth goal to insure the 9-5 victory for the Pride. Equally impressive offensively was the face-offs won by Kris Clarke, who won 15 out of 17 face-offs in the game.
For Hofstra, they improve to 4-5 overall and 1-1 in CAA play. They will host the Dragons of Drexel University in a rematch of last year’s CAA conference championship at Shuart Stadium at 1 pm. No doubt the Pride will look for some revenge as well as keep their heads above water in CAA before reaching the toughest part of their schedule when they take on seventh-ranked Big Red of Cornell University and eighteenth-ranked Tigers of Towson University. The Fightin’ Blue Hens, meanwhile, will host the Tigers at Delaware Stadium at 7 pm.
