FAIRFIELD, Conn. – Fairfield University Men's Lacrosse enters its eighth season of CAA play on Saturday, March 18 with a showdown under the lights at Hofstra. Opening faceoff on Long Island is slated for 7 p.m.
LAST TIME OUT
A 5-1 second-quarter for visiting Binghamton proved to be decisive as Fairfield concluded the non-conference portion of the 2023 season with a 14-9 loss last Saturday on Conway Field at Rafferty Stadium.
Jack McKenna paced the Fairfield attack with a hat trick, while
Bryce Ford racked up four points with a goal and three assists. Rounding out the starting attack,
Max Paparozzi scored a pair of goals.
In the midfield,
Will Consoli recorded a goal and an assist, with
Rob Moore and
Dean Ford each tallying a goal.
Will Snyder was at an even 50 percent in the cage with 14 saves. The defense in front of him included two ground balls and two caused turnovers for
Zack Antoniou with
Ryan Lancaster picking up four grounders with three caused turnovers with the short stick.
Binghamton was led by a six-goal day from Matthew Keegan, four goals by Quinn O'Hara, and a two-goal, four-assist performance from Thomas Greenblatt. Connor Winters made 11 saves to seal the win for the guests.
STAGS ON STREAKS
Fairfield's starting attack boasts a trio of Stags on prolific scoring streaks.
Bryce Ford has notched a point in all 24 games he has played in his career dating back to 2020, while
Max Paparozzi's two goals on Saturday ran his streak to 22 straight games with a point and 18 straight with a goal.
Jack McKenna's Saturday hat trick moved his streak to 21 straight - every game of his career - with a goal. He has scored multiple goals in 20 of those contests.
THE HOFSTRA UNIVERSITY PRIDE
Back-to-back home losses to Villanova and Syracuse have Hofstra at 2-5 entering the CAA slate. The Pride earned non-league wins over LIU and St. John's and also suffered setbacks to Merrimack, Navy and Michigan.
John Madsen leads Hofstra on the attack with 14 goals and 22 total points. Gerard Kane is the top facilitator with nine assists to go along with nine goals of his own. Rory Jones also has 18 points to his name with 12 goals and six helpers.
Chase Patterson is the top faceoff man in the CAA, ranking 13th in the nation with a .633 win percentage. Patterson is also top-10 in the country with 9.29 ground balls per game and has dished out a pair of assists off of the restart.
Mac Gates has played the entirety of all seven games to date for the Pride, posting a 12.00 goals-against average and a .485 save percentage with 79 saves and 84 goals allowed.
Hofstra went 6-9 overall and tied with the Stags at 2-3 in the CAA – with Fairfield holding the tiebreaker via the head-to-head result.
LAST MEETING
Faced with a 10-8 deficit with 10:19 to play in the 2022 CAA opener, Fairfield scored the game's final four goals to knock off visiting Hofstra, 12-10, on Conway Field at Rafferty Stadium.
Mike Drake had a six-point day, punctuated by scoring the game-winning goal with 1:21 to play, in the CAA triumph.
Drake finished with three goals and three assists.
Kyle Borda added a three-point day with two goals and an assist, and the duo of
Taylor Strough and
Jack McKenna scored two goals apiece.
After allowing seven goals in the first 27 minutes of the game, the defensive unit ceded only three goals in the second half.
Braden Lynch headed that effort on close defense with four ground balls and four caused turnovers, and
Matt Rice has three caused turnovers and five grounders as an SSDM.
James Corasaniti made six saves to notch the win in the cage.
ALL-TIME SERIES
Last season's 12-10 win for the Stags at Rafferty Stadium snapped a three-game skid in the series and trimmed Hofstra's all-time advantage to 8-6. The series is 5-4 in favor of the Stags since Fairfield joined the CAA. The squads are an even 4-4 in the regular season, with the Stags taking the lone postseason meeting by an 11-8 count in the 2016 CAA Semifinals.
The two most recent meetings are the only encounters in which both squads reached the 10-goal mark. Neither side has cracked double-digits in six of the 14 meetings, with an even 10 markers being enough to win in another two Fairfield/Hofstra clashes.
THE CAA SHUFFLE
In four seasons led by Head Coach
Andrew Baxter, the Stags have seen four different iterations of the CAA slate.
2020: No CAA games played
2021: 6 teams, 8 game schedule
2022: 6 teams, 5 game schedule
2023: 8 teams, 7 game schedule
UP NEXT
The Stags continue their CAA road swing next Saturday, March 25 at perennial league contender Towson on Saturday, March 25. The Tigers are 1-5 overall as they prepare to welcome Drexel to Johnny Unitas Stadium this weekend.
Conference action comes to Rafferty Stadium when the Stags host Drexel on Saturday, April 1 at noon.
