Hofstra men's lacrosse wins convincingly over seventh ranked Johns Hopkins

In the Hofstra men’s lacrosse team's first two games against Princeton and Brown the Pride gave up a combined 29 goals leaving an unhappy taste in the mouth of head coach Seth Tierney.  Saturday night against seventh-ranked Johns Hopkins however saw a major defensive turnaround with the Pride holding the Blue Jays to only two goals in the first half in route to a dominant 14-6 victory at a rain-soaked Shuart Stadium.

“Sometimes you’ve got to skin your knee to know that it hurts when you fall and the first two games weren’t happy,” said Tierney in the post game press conference in reference to his team’s first two games that featured a 17-14 loss at Princeton and 15-12 home win over Brown. “[Against Johns Hopkins] we were locked in.”

Tenth ranked Hofstra (2-1) outshot Johns Hopkins (4-2)  34-19, forced 16 turnovers and five failed clears in the game played during tropical storm force winds and heavy rain before 1,245 fans. The winds were so heavy at the beginning of the game that it caused a power failure with the Shuart Stadium lights and a 14 minute delay in the first quarter with Hofstra leading 3-1. It was the third Hofstra-Johns Hopkins meeting at Shuart Stadium in the last 10 years where inclement weather impacted the game with the others coming in 2000 and 2008.

The Pride’s improvement on defense was due in large part to the play of freshman goalie Rob Bellairs, who posted seven saves for the second consecutive game and made three critical stops in the first quarter. 

"They played harder than us, they played smarter than us and they executed a lot better than us," said Johns Hopkins head coach Dave Pietramala. "Quite frankly I'm embarrassed by our effort."

Hofstra will next be in action at home versus Sacred Heart on Saturday March 20 at 1 p.m. Last week after Hofstra picked up a huge March win over third ranked Princeton the Pride barely scraped by Sacred Heart 6-5 the following week. To avoid a letdown Tierney is planning to make sure his players remain “grounded” and will point out from the Johns Hopkins films areas where the team can improve despite posting such a convincing win. 

“We’re going to stay hungry and humble and that is going to be our slogan going forward,” said Tierney.