Men's Lacrosse: Fifth win on heels of first loss

The No. 5 Tigers (5-1 overall) lost to No. 9 Hofstra (4-1) 9-7 on March 14 before rebounding with an 18-11 thrashing of No. 17 Albany (4-2).

Princeton’s contest with Hofstra was reminiscent of many of the Tigers’ games last season. The Tigers fell into a deep hole early and, despite a late comeback, could not make up enough lost ground.

Midway through the first quarter, Hofstra opened the scoring with two quick goals. Midfielder Tom Interlicchio put the Pride on the board with a bounce shot. Within the next minute, midfielder Anthony Muscarella added his first tally of the game.

Pride goalie Andrew Gvozden, making only his second career start, asserted himself from the beginning. A point-blank save of a shot by senior attack Tommy Davis was only the start of an impressive nine-save performance.

Princeton answered early in the second quarter, when sophomore attack Jack McBride found junior midfielder Scott MacKenzie in space. MacKenzie’s goal cut the Pride’s lead in half, but Hofstra was unfazed. The Pride scored three consecutive goals — one with five seconds left in the half — to build a 5-1 lead.

First, it was midfielder Ryan Carter on a shot from a tough angle on the right. Then it was attack Jay Card, also from the right, and finally it was Carter again to close the half. In the first half, Princeton managed 14 shots, only five of which were on goal.

Hofstra jumped on the Tigers coming out of the break, scoring two more goals before Princeton began to turn things around. Jack McBride scored twice in the second half of the period, but the Pride thwarted many possessions that could have resulted in goals.

In the fourth, Princeton opened with goals from senior short-stick defensive midfielder Josh Lesko and senior midfielder Rich Sgalardi to cut the lead to 7-5. The teams traded goals twice before the game ended.

Hofstra’s Muscarella and Carter each finished with three points — Muscarella on three goals and Carter on two goals and an assist. Princeton was led by McBride’s two goals and one assist. No other Tiger tallied more than one point. Freshman goalie Tyler Fiorito played the first half, surrendering five goals with six saves. Junior goalie Nikhil Ashra gave up four goals with two saves in the second half.

“You have to give a lot of credit to them for coming up with a good game plan,” head coach Bill Tierney said. “They made it slower a game, which was our M.O. for a lot of years.”

Hofstra held the edge in ground balls and on the faceoff X. The Pride picked up 30 ground balls to the Tigers’ 26 and won 11 of the 19 faceoffs. Hofstra was patient with the ball, scoring opportunistically and preventing Princeton’s frenetic offense from unleashing its usual assault on the goal. The Tigers took only 33 shots, well below their season average of 48.2.

In losing to the Pride, Tierney suffered his first loss to nephew Seth Tierney, head coach at Hofstra. The elder Tierney triumphed the first two times the Tigers faced the Pride with Seth at the helm.

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Princeton responded with renewed vigor on March 20 against Albany. Last season, the Tigers fell 10-2 to the Great Danes in a game that was one of the lowest points Princeton has seen in recent years. This time around, the Orange and Black equaled last season’s score total in less than six minutes and tripled it by the end of the first quarter.

“We had a lot of movement, a lot of sharp passing, a lot of unselfishness,” Tierney said. “And I don’t think we’ve shot that well in a long, long time.”

Albany’s offense came out firing as well, and the score stood at 6-4 at the end of the first quarter. But the Tigers were a step ahead the whole way. The lead was 9-5 at halftime and 14-7 at the end of the third quarter.

The game was a showcase for the McBride cousins, who totaled 10 goals. Jack finished with a career-best seven points on six goals and an assist, and Chris finished with four goals and an assist. The two were extremely efficient, each shooting only eight times.

“The sky’s the limit with both of them,” Tierney said.

While Jack started the season with a bang, Chris has come along as well and is now tied for third on the team with 13 points.

“Chris was just waiting for a game like this,” Tierney said. “He’s been very good in practice. All of a sudden it all came together.”

Senior midfielder Mark Kovler also scored four goals for the Tigers, a number of which were essentially impossible to save. Lesko also filled up his stat line, finishing with two goals, seven ground balls and two caused turnovers.

The Tiger defense surrendered a season-high 11 goals but prevented the Great Danes from ever getting too close. Freshman defenseman Chad Wiedmaier finished with three ground balls and three forced turnovers and got the better of his assignment, attack Brian Caufield. Fiorito played the first 56 minutes, one second of the game, making 13 saves and giving up 10 goals.

Fiorito’s performance over the break seems to have confirmed that the freshman will be the starting goalie for the Tigers.

“Right now, Tyler’s our goalie,” Tierney said. “We’re very confident in Nikhil as well, but right now I think we’ve settled in on Tyler being the starter, and we’ll see what happens.”

Princeton will face Rutgers on the road for the Meistrell Cup in the teams’ 87th meeting this Tuesday.