Junior midfielder Jesse King (19) cradles the ball during a game against Marquette Feb. 22 at the Woody Hayes Athletic Center. OSU won, 11-7. Credit: Brett Amadon / Lantern reporter

Junior midfielder Jesse King (19) cradles the ball during a game against Marquette Feb. 22 at the Woody Hayes Athletic Center. OSU won, 11-7.
Credit: Brett Amadon / Lantern reporter

The Ohio State men’s lacrosse team dropped its second straight game this weekend.

Unable to get things going, OSU (1-4, 0-0) lost as the Hofstra Pride (3-2, 0-0) defeated the Buckeyes 7-5 Saturday at Hempstead, N.Y.

Despite getting off to a good start after freshman midfielder Sean Giampietro scored his first career goal at the 9:54 mark of the first quarter, the Buckeyes hit a wall.

OSU went  scoreless for more than 30 minutes and Hofstra scored four straight goals to take a 4-1 lead into halftime.

Coming out of the break, the Buckeyes were unable to cut into the Pride’s lead as both teams traded man-up goals in the third. The man-up goal for junior midfielder Turner Evans was the Buckeyes’ first of the season.

OSU was able to generate some offense in the fourth quarter, outscoring Hofstra 3-2, including two late goals from junior midfielder Jesse King and junior attackman Reegan Comeault , but it was too little too late as the Pride held on for the 7-5 victory.

The win increased Hofstra’s winning streak to three games.

Offensively, Hofstra was led by sophomore attackman Sam Llinares , who tallied three goals and an assist, and senior attackman Torin Varn, who scored twice for the Pride.

The Buckeyes got a good performance from Evans, who had two goals and an assist. His 10 assists on the season lead OSU. King’s first quarter assist on Giampietro’s goal was the 100th point of his career at OSU, making him the 28th Buckeye to hit that mark.

Freshman midfielder Jake Withers won 10 out of 15 faceoffs for the Buckeyes, who will look for more of that when they travel to Denver next week to take on the No. 12 Denver Pioneers.