FAIRFIELD, Conn. – #19/20 Fairfield University Men's Lacrosse scored the first four goals of the day and led wire-to-wire against visiting Hofstra en route to a 14-10 victory on Conway Field at Rafferty Stadium. Luke Okupski scored four goals in the CAA triumph.
 
After seeing their unbeaten streak snapped last weekend at Stony Brook, the Stags bounce back this afternoon to improve to 10-1 on the season and 3-1 in the CAA. Fairfield has reached double-digit wins for the sixth time in program history. The program record stands at 12 victories, established in 2012 and matched in 2014.
 
"Obviously last week was tough, but we took it as an opportunity to get rid of some of the extra noise around our team and get back to just focusing on us. Honestly, it felt great to get back to having that underdog status about us," said Okupski.
 
Hofstra suffers its first CAA setback, slipping to 3-1 in the league as a part of a 7-3 overall mark.
 
Sophomore standout Julian Radossich had two caused turnovers in the win to set a new Fairfield career record with 59. The Tewaaraton Award Watch List defenseman also extended his own single-season record to 32 caused turnovers after establishing the new mark of 27 during his CAA Rookie of the Year campaign in 2024.
 
In today's action, four different scorers contributed to the game-opening run with Jake Gilbert, KJ Delane, Keegan Lynch and Devin Lampron each rattling the cage. Will Consoli picked up two assists during the stretch as the Stags held Hofstra scoreless for more than 17 minutes to claim a 4-0 advantage.
 
After the Pride got on the board with Rory Jones getting the first of his five tallies, the Stags responded with two goals in a span of just nine seconds. First, Okupski got on the board finishing a pass from Lynch. On the ensuing faceoff, Daniel Davis came away with a  clean win and found Gilbert, who connected with a streaking Austin McClintic for his second "pole goal" of the year.
 
Lampron added his second of the period to extend the Fairfield lead to 7-1 before Hofstra went back-to-back for the first time as Trey Parkes and Jones each scored to cut the margin to 7-3.
 
With time expiring in the period, the Pride seemed poised to hold for the last shot of the half. However, Hofstra found a good look on the doorstep that was denied by Owen Hirsch. The senior netminder got the Stags moving in transition with McClintic providing the assist this time and Gilbert getting the goal with 54 seconds left.
 
Hofstra won the next faceoff and again looked to hold for the final shot. This time, it was Matt Rice swooping in for an interception and racing coast-to-coast for a goal with 16 seconds left in the half, sending the Stags into the locker room with a 9-3 advantage.
 
Okupski struck first in the second half to push the margin to 10-3, but Hofstra followed with a 3-0 run to draw within four goals with 2:51 remaining in the third quarter. Fairfield answered with Lynch's second goal of the day, and the Pride responded in the closing minute of the frame to push the game into the fourth quarter with the Stags on top, 11-7.
 
Hofstra began the final stanza on the EMO and capitalized to cut the lead to 11-8. But the Stags earned their own man-up chance shortly thereafter, with Okupski getting the hat trick with a behind-the-back finish. The grad student added his fourth of the day three minutes later to extend the Fairfield cushion to 13-8. The Pride scored twice in the final five minutes to keep the game close before Devin Lampron netted his third of the day to cap the scoring and ice the 14-10 victory.
 
Keegan Lynch paced the Fairfield attack with a five-point day consisting of two goals and three assists. In addition to Okupski's four goals and Lampron's three, Consoli had a three-point day with three assists from the midfield and Gilbert chipped in two goals and an assist.
 
KJ Delane and Austin McClintic each contributed a goal and an assist, and Rice had one goal with his steal and score just prior to the halftime horn.
 
Fairfield and Hofstra split the faceoff battle, 13-13. Daniel Davis led the Stags' effort at 12-for-20 with five ground balls and also notched a caused turnover.
 
On the defensive end, Radossich gathered four ground balls to go along with his two caused turnovers. Rory Thompson had a big game from the LSM spot with four caused turnovers and three ground balls.
 
Owen Hirsch made 12 saves in the Fairfield cage in a 60 minute effort to notch the win.
 
"Hofstra has had some big wins and has been scoring a lot of goals. I thought our defensive gameplan and execution were excellent, and that was one of the key difference makers," said Head Coach Andrew Baxter. "Offensively, we wanted to get up and down. Their goalie made some saves and we took a few transition shots that we probably wanted back, but overall we were able to push the tempo and play the style that we wanted to play."
 
The Pride were led by Rory Jones' five goals. Goalkeeper Shea Kennedy had 13 saves and collected five ground balls for the visitors.
 
Fairfield Men's Lacrosse will now embark on a two-game CAA road trip, meeting the two teams that met for the CAA Championship last May. First up, the Stags travel to Delaware next Saturday, April 12 for a noon start. Fairfield will then visit reigning conference champion Towson before returning home to close out the regular season at Rafferty Stadium on Saturday, April 26 against Monmouth.
 
Tickets for the regular season finale are on sale now at FairfieldStags.com/TIX.