Senior Torin Varn fired a bullet from 11 yards out with 20 seconds remaining in the first overtime to give the Hofstra Pride a 9-8 victory over the Georgetown Hoyas at James M. Shuart Stadium Saturday afternoon.
Varn, a co-captain from Ithaca, NY, took a pass from long-stick junior midfielder Ryan Rielly and beat Hoya goalie Jake Haley for his fifth goal of the season for the game-winner. Freshman Brier Davis (Caledon, ON, Canada) led the Pride with three-second quarter goals as Hofstra built a 6-1 lead just 4:13 into the second period. Pride sophomore Sam Llinares (Hauppauge, NY) added a goal and two assists while senior Drew Coholan (Rochester, NY) chipped in with a goal and an assist. Junior Chris Selva (Parkland, FL) made 11 saves in the Pride cage as Hofstra won its second consecutive game to even their record at 2-2.
Georgetown was led by Bo Stafford with two goals and one assist while Reilly O’Connor and Devon Lewis each posted two goals. Peter Conley chipped in with a goal and an assist. Hoya goalie Jake Haley made eight saves as Georgetown slipped to 2-2 on the season.
After Lewis opened the scoring in the contest for the Hoyas at the 9:26 mark of the first quarter, Hofstra scored six unanswered goals, including two in the second quarter during a 3:00 minute Georgetown stick penalty near the end of the first quarter. Coholan and Llinares scored the first two Pride goals to take a 2-1 lead after the first quarter. Red-shirt sophomore Korey Hendrickson scored the first man-up goal just 14 seconds into the second, off a pass from Coholan. Davis followed with his fourth of the year, on the man-up, 1:54 later. The Canadian newcomer would added his fifth and sixth of the year, at even strength, over the next 2:05 to give the Pride a 6-1 lead.
But the Hoyas scored seven of the next eight goals to take an 8-7 lead with 7:40 to play in regulation. O’Connor started the spurt with a man-up goal with 3:03 to play in the second quarter. Face-off specialist Tyler Knarr then scored off the face off seven seconds later to close the gap to 6-3 at halftime. Stafford added a man-up goal 5:25 into the third before Pride senior Lance Yapor (Glenview, IL) stopped the run with his fifth goal of the season with 3:38 to play in the period to boost the Hofstra lead to 7-4.
Georgetown responded with four consecutive goals as Lewis posted his second of the contest with 12 seconds to play in the third, O’Connor notched his second of the game 1:28 into the fourth and Conley tied the game at 7-all with his seventh goal of the year with 10:12 to play in the fourth quarter. Less than three minutes later, Stafford scored his second of the game, from Jeff Fountain, to give the Hoyas their first lead since 1-0.
Hofstra junior Mike Malave sent the game into overtime with a bounce shot on the run with just 1:14 to play. It was Malave’s fourth goal of the season.
In the overtime, the Hoyas turned the ball over twice and Haley made a save on a Llinares shot before the winning goal by Varn. The game-winning goal started in the Pride end on a turnover. Rielly carried the ball over midfield and into the Hoya box where he found Varn on the left side. Varn whistled his shot past Haley for Hofstra’s first overtime victory since a 9-8 win at Army in 2009–a span of six games. Georgetown outshot the Pride in the contest, 34-31 and picked up 32 ground balls to Hofstra’s 26.
Hofstra returns to action on Saturday, March 8 when the Pride host the 19th-ranked Buckeyes of Ohio State. Game time at Shuart Stadium is 1 pm.
