HEMPSTEAD, N.Y. — The No. 18 Hofstra Pride (2-1) fired off two quick goals and never looked back, as it beat the No. 14 men’s lacrosse team (1-2), 13-5, at Shuart Stadium Saturday. The Pride had textbook execution across the field, while the Red continued to struggle, plagued by unforced turnovers.
Of the game, Cornell head coach Jeff Tambroni said, “There wasn’t much of a bright spot. Usually, you can come out of a game and no matter what happens, you can find a bright spot. I don’t think there were any bright spots from today’s game. There was no one that I was overly excited about that was wearing a Cornell uniform today from coaching staff on down.”
He then added, “It was a disappointing performance all around, and we need to get ourselves back to Ithaca and get back on the practice field, because we need it.”
In a dominating first quarter, Hofstra had seven more shots than Cornell, picked up three more ground balls, and won three more faceoffs. Adding to Hofstra’s dominance were many unforced turnovers by the Red. The result was 15 minutes controlled by the Pride and a 3-0 lead.
“I was surprised,” said Hofstra head coach John Danowski of the day’s outcome. “We are a very young team, and I didn’t know how we would play coming in. We saw Cornell on tape and we know that they have some terrific players and are very well coached but didn’t know what to expect out of our guys. So, I am very pleasantly surprised with our efforts, certainly in our execution today.”
Hofstra opened the scoring just one minute in when redshirt freshman Ryan Lucas tallied a goal off an assist from Jim Femminella.
The second Hofstra goal came two minutes later after a 30 second penalty for pushing. A man up, Joe Kostolansky fired a shot from about 15 yards out, beating junior keeper Brandon Ross. Mike Morrison was awarded an assist on the play.
Femminella had the third goal of the game with just less than four minutes remaining in the quarter. Sophomore James Morgan set up behind the cage and found Femminella across the crease who nailed a shot, beating Ross high.
Femminella finished with four goals and two assists.
“We were able to move the ball pretty well in transition,” said Danowski of his offense, specifically Femminella. “I thought Jimmy was kind of a recipient of being in the right place at the right time, moving the ball and doing some things. When the game gets crazy-that he was in the right spot at the right time today.”
Hofstra came out in the second quarter and fired off four more goals before Cornell was able to get on the board.
Leaving the game limping with 10 minutes left, junior Andrew Collins returned to net the Red’s first goal.
In a man up situation, from behind the net, sophomore Sean Greenhalgh fed Collins, who had great position in the crease. After three stick fakes, the junior beat Hofstra goalie Matthew Southard.
Entering half time Hofstra held an 8-1 lead.
“Our offense has not answered the bell since the season has started,” said Tambroni. “It’s been very difficult; we’ve had a lot of time in the defensive end. I thought we gave up some easy ones early and I think every chance we had in the offensive end, we gave it back to them or we would just throw the ball into places that it just shouldn’t have been thrown.”
The third quarter was the strongest that the Red played, as it outshot the Pride 15-6, picked up seven more ground balls, and won four out of the six possible faceoffs. But could still only bring the score to 10-4.
Cornell got on the board first in the second half when freshman Joe Boulukos netted a goal just over two minutes in. After missing the opportunity to score from the crease, he picked up the ground ball on a turnover after a Hofstra clear and took it in lefty hitting the inside of the far right post.
After Morrison rolled the crease for his second goal of the game four minutes later, Cornell fired in two more goals.
The first of these came when sophomore Andrew Reenstra fed senior tri-captain J.P. Schalk from behind the cage. Schalk grabbed the pass and fired one past Southard.
Then with just 19 seconds left, senior tri-captain Ryan McClay took the ball downfield and hit Boulukos, who finished for his second goal of the game.
The team’s run was quickly ended when ten seconds later from the faceoff, junior Keith Mekeel scored off a pass from Kostolansky.
Cornell’s final goal came with four and a half minutes left in the game when Collins rolled the cage and hit sophomore Kevin Nee.
Southard finished with nine saves, while Ross finished with 10. Hofstra sophomore Steve Izzo also saw two minutes of action at the end of the game.
The Red returns to action tomorrow when it takes on Canisius at 4 p.m. on Schoellkopf Field.
Archived article by Kristen Haunss