Box Score FAIRFIELD, Conn. – The Fairfield University men's lacrosse team scored the first five goals of Friday night's regular season finale against visiting Hofstra, and the Stags' defense made the early run stand up in a 5-4 win on Senior Night at Rafferty Stadium. With the victory, Fairfield clinches at least a share of the Colonial Athletic Association regular season title.
Fairfield (9-5, 4-1 CAA) can win an outright regular season crown and earn the right to host next weekend's CAA Championship if Towson loses at Drexel on Saturday afternoon. Regardless of seeding and location, the Stags' semifinal opponent on Thursday, April 30 will be Massachusetts. Fairfield topped the Minutemen, 10-9, on April 4 in Amherst. Also regardless of tomorrow's result, Towson and Drexel will meet again in the other semifinal matchup.
In tonight's contest, five different Stags scored as Fairfield jumped out to a 5-0 lead after the first quarter. Tristan Sperry's unassisted tally at 13:00 started the scoring followed by a Jake Knostman goal assisted by Drew Federico. Joe Rodrigues added a goal off a Sperry assist, TJ Neubauer sent home his team-leading 29th goal from a Colin McLinden feed, and Dave Fleming added an unassisted goal with 42 seconds left in the period to account for the 5-0 lead.
Though the Stags would not score again, Fairfield's defense put forth one of its strongest efforts of the season, including two scoreless quarters. Hofstra (5-9, 2-3) scored three second-quarter goals to close the gap to 5-3 enter the intermission and, after neither team found the back of the net for a span of 30:48, cut the deficit to 5-4 with 2:39 to go.
The Pride won the ensuing faceoff and embarked on what would prove to be the game's final possession. After a Tyler Behring save with 1:14 to go, Hofstra gathered the ground ball and, in the process, earned a 60-second extra-man opportunity. Playing short-handed, Fairfield forced two shots off target – the second of which was tracked down by Matt Borda to run out the clock on a 5-4 Stags' victory.
Behring made 11 saves for the Stags to improve to 6-1 as a starting goalkeeper. In front of the Stags' sophomore netminder, Borda picked up four ground balls and Conor Barr collected three.
Reigning CAA Rookie of the Week Will Fox turned in another strong showing at the faceoff 'X'. Fox went 7-for-11 with six ground balls. Rounding out the effort was Joe DeLasho, who won one of his two draws attempted.
Tonight's win marks the Stags' second consecutive regular season title; Fairfield won the 2014 ECAC Lacrosse League regular season crown in the league's final year of existence. The victory is also the third game in which the Stags allowed a season-low four goals, the eighth (and fourth consecutive) game of the season decided by one goal and the lowest-scoring performance in a victory since defeating Air Force, 4-3, in 2010.
Details surrounding the CAA postseason picture will be announced on FairfieldStags.com as they are finalized by the conference office.
