Hofstra lacrosse rallies to beat St. John’s
Hofstra's Sam Llinares goes against St. John's Kyle Skramko during the college men's lacrosse game where Hofstra defeated St. John's 15-8 at St. John's University in Jamaica, New York on March 26, 2016. Credit: Patrick E. McCarthy
Here was Hofstra having allowed seven goals and behind by one on the road against struggling St. John’s with 6:40 left until the intermission. But then there was Hofstra beginning to flex the top-20 form that hasn’t always been the norm during the course of the first nine games.
Sam Llinares finished with five goals and an assist and Josh Byrne contributed four goals and an assist. And the defense tightened up its act. So the No. 19 Pride left DaSilva Memorial Field yesterday with a 15-8 victory over the Red Storm in the nonconference finale for both teams.
Hofstra will open CAA play Saturday night against visiting Fairfield with a 6-3 record after beginning 3-0, including an opening win at North Carolina.
“We got off to a great start in the season and it’s tough to maintain,” coach Seth Tierney said. “But we’ve learned a lot of lessons and now let’s hope that they stick as we head into the CAA season.”
They can hope Llinares, the 2015 CAA Player of the Year from Hauppauge, and Byrne, the 2015 NJCAA Attackman of the Year at Nassau, have learned to mesh their considerable talents. They were very productive in the first three games, then not as much.
“Things were just kind of out of sync,” Byrne said. “We had a couple of hard days in practice where we went after each other and really kind of figured it all out together.”
Llinares found Byrne for the late, tying goal Tuesday against Vermont, and the Pride won in OT. Now Byrne is up to 22 goals and Llinares has 20.
“The looks will come for the attackmen and when they do, we’ve just got to bury them,” Llinares said. “We have lately.”
St. John’s will take a 1-8 mark into Saturday’s Big East opener at Providence after losing to four top-20 teams.
“We just haven’t been able to put it all together for 60 minutes,” coach Jason Miller said, adding that “1-8 is a function of not playing well and playing really good teams.”
Jason DeBenedictis fed Chris Buscemi for his first collegiate goal, giving St. John’s its 7-6 second-quarter lead.
Hofstra responded with a 7-0 run. Korey Hendrickson launched it 12 seconds later. Then Byrne scored from long range and Trevor Kupecky scored twice. So it was a 10-7 game at the break.
Miller switched goalies, inserting Michael O’Keeffe for Joseph Danaher. But in the third, Byrne beat O’Keeffe once and Llinares did it twice, making it a six-goal spread.
“We didn’t capitalize on the stuff that we should’ve,” said DeBenedictis, a sophomore attackman from Holbrook who scored his 20th in the fourth. “They’re also a great team.”
The Red Storm started great, going up 2-0 with 1:29 gone on goals by Kyle Skramko and James Bonanno. It was 5-5 after one quarter.
“I think personally we’ve got to be better,” Byrne said. “Going into CAAs right now, this is where things really get real.”
