Hofstra defeats Delaware 12-10

GAME PHOTOS


Tim Treubig

 Hempstead, NY -- Tim Treubig scored three goals to lead seven Pride goal scorers, and Joe Mascaretti won 15 of 23 face-offs to lead #2 Hofstra to a 12-10 victory over Delaware at James M. Shuart Stadium Friday night. The win, Hofstra's 11th straight, improves the Pride's record to 11-1 overall and 5-0 in the CAA. Delaware falls to 9-4 and 1-3 in the CAA.

The Pride victory, which clinched at least a tie for the Colonial Athletic Association regular season title, also assured that Hofstra would have home field advantage in the CAA Championship Tournament on May 3 and 6.

Treubig opened the scoring just 21 second into the contest, taking a pass from John Keysor and beating Delaware goalie Tommy Scherr (12 saves). Dan Deckelbaum tied the game for Delaware 3:20 later with a shot from eight yards out. But the Pride scored the next three goals as Treubig, Keysor and Chris Unterstein dented the twine for a 4-1 lead with 3:35 to play in the first quarter. The Blue Hens responded with a three goal run of their own as Adam Zuder-Havens (4G, 2A) scored twice around a Jordan Hall goal to knot the game at 4-4 with 10:05 to play in the first half.

Hofstra sophomore Kevin Unterstein broke the tie on the ensuing face-off, going down the middle of the field, taking a pass from Athan Iannucci (2G, 1A), and beating Scherr for his third goal of the year. Just 18 seconds later Hofstra defender Brett Moyer stripped the ball away from a Delaware middie, went down the middle of the field and fed Iannucci who scored from 10 yards out for his 37th goal of the year. Iannucci would close out the first half scoring with 1:30 to play, taking a pass from freshman Tom Dooley and bouncing a shot into the cage to give the Pride a 7-4 lead at halftime.

Zuder-Havens scored 2:59 into the third quarter to close the Delaware deficit to 7-5 but Chris Unterstein scored his second of the game and 26th of the year, and Ryan Lucas scored 45 seconds apart just 1:06 later to boost the Hofstra lead to 9-5. Zuder-Havens and Vincent Giordano each scored goals before the end of the third quarter to bring the Blue Hens back to within two at 9-7 entering the fourth quarter. Tim Treubig then scored an unassisted goal at the 3:05 mark of the final quarter, his third of the game and ninth of the year, and junior Bill Peters tallied his second goal of the year two minutes later to boost the Hofstra lead back to four at 11-7.

Delaware's Jordan Hall and Hofstra's John Keysor exchanged goals to move the score to 12-8 before Deckelbaum and Paul Rodriquez scored 12 seconds apart inside the three minute mark to close the gap to 12-10. But the Pride killed the clock in the final two minutes to beat the Blue Hens for the seventh time in their last nine meetings.

While the Pride offense was clicking, senior face-off man Joe Mascaretti was giving Hofstra a good boost by winning 15 of 23 face-offs against the nation's leading face-off man, Alex Smith. Smith entered the game with a .717 winning percentage on face-off this year but won only 38 percent Friday night. Hofstra goalie Matt Southard recorded four saves in 60 minutes to post his eleventh win of the season.

The Pride will return to action on Saturday, April 22 in Philadelphia when they go for the perfect CAA regular season against the Dragons of Drexel at 1 p.m.