Maryland took a commanding 5-1 lead in the first quarter and ended the half 6-2, but the Dutchman clawed their way back to a 9-9 tie going into the fourth. The teams went back and forth for the first half of the quarter, but with the score knotted at 11; Maryland ripped off three tallies to put the game out of reach. McGinnis let in a few uncharacteristic goals, but his play was still better than average. The defensive combination with close defense, Jason Carrier, Casey Connor, and Michael Howley joined by lonstick Geoff Burnham and middies Jeff Shirk and Nate Watkins were great in settled situations. Hofstra was able to capitalize in unsettled situations; they worked the ride for at least three goals. Hofstra did a lot of the little things well to keep themselves in the game, but in the end Maryland over-powered them.

The first quarter was all Maryland despite the fact that Hofstra drew first blood. Dutchmen attacker Joe Kostolansky finished a Scott Dooley feed from behind to start the scoring. Freshman sensation, Mike Mollot, had a slow start. First the ball flew out of his stick with nobody on him and trickled out of bounds, and then he got smacked by Brian Spallina, Hoftra's longstick middie. Maryland's first two goals were anything but garden variety. Malone got caught up in traffic high above the crease so he dumped a behind the back pass to Mike Lamonica, who had his back to the goal. Sensing the on-coming traffic, Lamonica shovels one over his shoulder without looking and finds the upper right, 1-1. Then, Andrew Combs stepped up on Hofstra goalie, Mike Demeo, and deflected a clearing pass with his chest into the open net, 2-1. Mollot picked up his play and found Malone for the next tally, 3-1. That one was a feed from the top to the crease, and the next one involved the same duo, but from behind to the crease, 4-1. Brian Zeller got the first of three on the day with a straight up sweep down the right side, 5-1.

The second quarter was a stalemate with each team getting one. Ramar Clash had a classic battle with midfield defender Nate Watkins. Both players are huge and Clash attempted to bull in three times on the side of the goal. The third time was the charm, as he got inside and Watkins was forced to haul him down. They got nothing on the man-up, but it was an outstanding battle. Mollot really started to control the flow in the second quarter, distributing the ball to the crease, back door, and backside with his pattented lolli-pop passes. Joe Barile broke the second quarter ice by faking a shot to temperarily freeze his defender, then moved in closer to rip an underhand shot, 5-2. Spallina and Mollot met up again later; they exchanged viscious slashes and both went off for a minute. Seems the young guy took exception to the thrashing that Spallina so often dishes out. Mollot got the last laugh, as well as the last goal of the half to end it 6-2.

Malone returned the favor to Mollot just seven seconds into the second half for a runaway score of 7-2. Hofstra's Tom Kessler kept scrapping, however, and he snagged a clearing attempt and scored, 7-3. Hofstra then had a couple of chances to rip shots, but they took ridiculously long wind-ups in the face of closing defenders. Perhaps they were thinking that they had to shoot the ball as hard as they could to beat McGinnis. The Terps struck again later, with Zeller sprinting straight down the center while ripping one through Demeo's legs, 8-3. Hofstra would go on to score six of the next seven goals to tie it at nine. Scott Dooley came from behind the net to get a lefty score for the Dutchmen. Then, Kostolansky got a gift goal on McGinnis. Receiving the ball at the top righty crank position in a fast break, Kostolansky fired an average overhand shot that beat McGinnis through the legs, and McGinnis saw it all the way, 8-5. Mollot came back for Maryland when he rushed the net from behind and slipped inside the defense to get a low right-handed shot off, 9-5. Kostolansky answered with a similiar shot from the fast break. "If it aint broke, don't fix it." Kessler got yet another opportunistic goal when he picked up a loose ball on a botched play to make it 9-7. Next, Bob Parinelli fed Kessler for their third goal in just over a minute. Finally, Ramar Clash worked the bottom corner and fed Adam Hananel for an upper right rip, 9-9.

The fourth quarter started out neck and neck. Maryland started the festivities with a dandy. They pulled off the hidden ball trick with amazing success when Mike Lamonica and Brian Zeller passed by each other above the restraining line. Lamonica faked a flip to Zeller and the entire defense bought it. Lamonica might as well have been shooting on an open net, 10-9. Kostolansky wasted no time by putting in a rebound within seconds to knot it back up at 10. Zeller decided to take another dead-on run at the cage and had success with an overhand shot that beat Demeo, 11-10. Then, Jeff Shirk got a phantom slash call to put Hofstra on the man-up. Doug Shanahan cashed it in for the Dutchmen with one of his lasers from his favotite spot, off to the goalie's right in the top corner. At this point Andrew Combs stepped up bigtime for the Terps as he scored the next three goals to make it 14-11. First, Mollot drove to his left from behind and popped a cross-crease pass high in the air. Combs risked life and limb to go up and quick stick it home with the right-handed shot. Next, he came from the other side to quick one in lefty on two lightening passes, the last coming from Marcus Lachapelle. Before Combs got his third goal of the quarter some very important things happened. Mollot, an attackman, got caught on defense against the very hot Kostolansky. Kostolansky had four goals on the day, but Mollot held his own to stop the big man. With 2:30 left Ramar Clash could of made it 13-12 when he managed to work his way to the doorstep of Maryland's goal. He threw the ball inches over the cage. That's a shot that will replay many times for Clash as Maryland went the other way and scored when Mollot fed Combs. Hofstra was down, but never out. Kessler stripped defenseman Casey Connor of the ball at the restraining line and ran in uncontested for the score. He paid for it when Mike Lamonica leveled him with a shoulder to the ribs. Kessler was winded, but the score was 14-12 and the Dutchmen had an extra man. Maryland managed to kill it to end the game.

Note: we apologize for the tardiness of the story, but the UMBC site was not equipped to go online. Much to our dismay, we had to wait till after the four hour trip home to post.

Hofstra vs. Maryland

Hofstra

12

Scoring
Joe Kostolansky	(4, 1)
Tom Kessler	(4, 0)
Adam Hananel	(1, 1)
Scott Dooley	(1, 1)
Joe Barile	(1, 0)
Doug Shanahan	(1, 0)
Ramar Clash	(0, 1)
Bob Parrinelli	(0, 1)
Brian Spallina	(0, 1)

Saves
Michael Demeo	11 (0.440)

Current Record
Hofstra	11-5

Maryland

14

Scoring
Mike Mollot	(3, 4)
Andrew Combs	(4, 0)
Chris Malone	(2, 2)
Brian Zeller	(3, 0)
Mike Lamonica	(2, 0)

Saves
Pat Mcginnis	13 (0.520)

Current Record
Maryland	11-4