The Georgetown Men’s Lacrosse team (2-2, 0-0 Big East) fell in a close matchup against Hofstra (2-2, 0-0 CAA) on Saturday, with the Hoyas rallying to tie the game late before losing in overtime. The team started slow, falling behind 6-1 in the second quarter before coming back to force overtime against the Pride. The road loss marks the Hoyas’ second straight defeat after starting the season 2-0.
Leading the way on offense for the Hoyas were junior attackman Reilly O’Connor, junior midfielder Bo Stafford and freshman attackman Devon Lewis, each of whom scored two goals. The team stormed back with a barrage of five second-half goals to bring the game to overtime, but ran out of steam in the overtime period despite dominating the time of possession.
The Hoyas struck first as Lewis scored on a jump shot with 9:26 remaining in the first period. But from there Hofstra carried the play, tying the game two minutes after Lewis’ goal and then scoring again to take a 2-1 lead into the second quarter. Hofstra would continue their run, as penalties put the Hoyas at a two-man disadvantage to start the quarter. The Pride scored only 14 seconds into the period while two-men up, and then followed that goal with another by Hofstra attackman Brier Davis. Davis would add two more goals in the quarter, both coming at even strength.
The momentum began to turn back in the Hoyas’ direction late in the second quarter, as Reilly O’Connor scored with three minutes remaining in the period to end the Pride’s run and cut their lead to 6-2. Graduate student Tyler Knarr won the ensuing face-off for the Hoyas and sprinted down the field to score just seven seconds after O’Connor’s strike.
The teams went back-and-forth during the third quarter, as Stafford pulled the Hoyas within two goals on freshman attackman Peter Conley’s assist. Hofstra answered with a goal of their own with 3:38 remaining in the quarter before Lewis sliced through the Pride’s defense and fired home a shot to send the teams into the final break with the score at 7-5.
O’Connor added another significant goal as he broke through the defense early in the fourth quarter, sending the ball past the Pride goalie and into the top left corner. Then, with 10:12 remaining in regulation, Conley scored on an assist from Stafford to tie the game. Now, with momentum on their side, the Hoyas took the lead by way of a Stafford goal on a pass from senior attackman Jeff Fountain with 7:40 left in the game.
After Stafford’s goal, the scoring slowed down for a time as the Hoyas held off attempts by Hofstra to retie the game. Finally those efforts prevailed with just 1:14 left in regulation, as the Pride tied the game on a goal from Mike Malave. The Hoyas could not manage to find the game-winning goal and eventually gave up the winner on a Pride fast break with only 19 seconds to go in the period.
After a difficult stretch on the road, the Hoyas return to the Multi-Sport field to take on Harvard on Saturday, March 8.
