M. lacrosse falls to Johns Hopkins in season-opener

Saturday — season opener — national title expectations — No. 2 vs. No. 3 in the nation. An overflowing crowd in chilly 30-degree weather, but the men's lacrosse team fell, 10-8, to Johns Hopkins.

As has been the case for the last 14 seasons, Princeton and the Blue Jays squared off to open the lacrosse season. It is a difficult way to start, especially if you lose.

"If you win it you got one in the bank," head coach Bill Tierney said. "If you lose it, you feel crummy."

In the first half of play, the orange and black half of the stands had little to cheer about.

Their team was being dominated in the first 30 minutes in every significant aspect of the game — outshot by nine, converted only six of 10 clears while the Blue Jays were successful on 12-of-13 — and, most importantly, behind, 8-3, the scoreboard.

"We didn't do as good a job of preparing our kids for the outset of the game," Tierney said. "All the credit has to go to Hopkins."

The Tigers were noticeably flat even from the time they came out of the locker room. Johns Hopkins roared onto the field waving their arms and getting the large Johns Hopkins contingency excited. Princeton jogged out and went straight to a huddle.

Johns Hopkins opened the scoring two minutes and 31 seconds into the first quarter on a great individual effort by Kyle Harrison. Princeton tried to force him to his left all afternoon and was usually successful at doing that. However, Harrison would also dodge the slide, which left the Tiger defense exposed.

For much of the first half, Princeton was powerless against Johns Hopkins' superior ball movement. The Blue Jays were right on the mark with each and every pass and made quick decisions.

After Peter LeSueur scored his first of two goals, Princeton finally got going on the offensive end. Predictably, the key play was made by junior attack Ryan Boyle.

Boyle controlled play from behind the Hopkins net as he did for much of the game. He faked a flip pass to a teammate, beat his man around the goal and fed senior midfielder Brad Dumont for the netter.

Princeton got going in the second quarter, but only after Hopkins scored twice more to close the first.

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Boyle again was the setup man, this time for senior attack Sean Hartofilis. He was able to find a seam six yards from the goal, and Boyle hit him nicely.

Princeton really applied the pressure when they scored again, less than two minutes later. On a bang-bang play, Boyle passed to Hartofilis, who found sophomore attack Jason Doneger all alone on the other side of the cage for the easy score.

Cringing Tigers

What happened in the next few minutes made every Princeton fan cringe, as the Tigers made numerous costly errors. From two offsides calls to getting beat to every loose ball, Princeton played some of their worst lacrosse to close the first half. Johns Hopkins scored four goals in the last five minutes, the last one coming with only 6.2 seconds left in the half.

The second half was a complete turnaround. On defense, the Tigers were quicker to help out and were able to contain Harrison. On the offensive end, Princeton's execution was much sharper, and this was reflected on the scoreboard.

"Emotion, we just came to play harder in the second half," Tierney said.

Princeton was generating good scoring opportunities, but were simply unable to put the ball in the net.

"I thought we tried to place the ball a little too much," Tierney said. "Sometimes in the first game you just need to shoot the ball as hard as you can at the goalie and hope it goes in."

With 3:39 seconds left in the third quarter, Princeton did just that. The Tigers scored four goals over a span of 3:34 to bring the Tigers within one going into the fourth quarter. Four different players scored the goals.

In the fourth , Princeton had their opportunities but again were unable to can the shot. Johns Hopkins sealed the game with 3:09 left after a steal by Corey Harned who dished to Kyle Barrie for the victory-clinching goal.