Men’s Lacrosse: Hofstra Tigers’ next foe

After crucial road wins against top-10 rivals Johns Hopkins and University of Maryland, Baltimore County, over the past two weeks, Princeton is ranked No. 3 in the latest national poll and is exhibiting some of the best and most balanced attack play the Ivy League has witnessed in years.

In the words of junior attack Rob Engelke, the Tigers are playing with the “most confidence” he has seen them exhibit.

That confidence will be key when Princeton (4-0 overall) faces off against perennial foes Hofstra (2-1) on Saturday and Albany (3-1) the following Friday.

Hofstra—coached by Seth Tierney, nephew of Princeton head coach Bill Tierney and former coach of the Tigers’ rookie assistant coach Kevin Unterstein—will look to avenge two straight years of disappointment against the Tigers on Saturday when the two teams clash in Hempstead, N.Y.

To do so, though, would require the Pride to muster a defensive stand that has not showed up in games so far this season.

Hofstra has given up an average of 10.7 goals per game this year, and its two wins thus far have both been gut-wrenching 11-10 thrillers, including a double-overtime victory at Brown two weeks ago.

No. 8 Johns Hopkins relieved No. 11 Hofstra of its burden of close games, defeating the Pride 12-7 at Homewood Field, Baltimore, Md.

“Hofstra is a great team, with great coaches and very skilled players. For the defense, we’ll have a game plan ready to go, but we have to be ready to adjust during the game to any new looks Hofstra might use,” junior defenseman Jeremy Hirsch said.

“They have big strong middies and excellent finishing attackmen, so our entire defense will have our hands full,” he added. “However, our motto so far this spring has been all about us and what we do. We need to stick to the basics of our defense, which is smart, aggressive team defense where we all help each other out.”

Princeton has made relatively easy work of its opponents this season. The Tigers have racked up 49 goals in their four wins, with an average margin of victory of six goals.

The closest contest came against No. 9 UMBC, as the Tigers rode the heroics of junior faceoff man Paul Barnes and freshman goalie Tyler Fiorito to hold on late in the game, and preserve a one-goal victory on the Retrievers’ home turf.

Princeton’s mammoth margins of victory can largely be attributed to the team’s newfound aggressiveness on offense. A summer lacrosse tour of Europe seems to have filled the Tigers with newfound firepower and the confidence to unleash it.

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Princeton has outshot its opponents 202 to 98 this season. The Tigers took a total of 417 shots on goal in 13 games last season.

The barrage of cannonballs from senior attack Tommy Davis and sophomore attack Jack McBride have kept opponents on their toes. Davis, a veteran scorer, leads the Tigers with 12 points, while McBride, the reigning Ivy League Rookie of the Year, has picked up where he left off with nine goals in three games.

Aggression isn’t the only thing working in Princeton’s favor this season. Despite graduating All-America defenseman Dan Cocoziello ’08 and goalie Alex Hewit ’08, the highly touted Tiger defense has held up like a brick wall, partly because of the key contributions of a pair of freshman talents.

Prior to stepping onto campus, goalie Tyler Fiorito had already received a myriad of national and international lacrosse honors. After four games with the Orange and Black, his fame has shifted from his status as a member of the U.S. Under-19 team that won the World Championships to the goalie that led Princeton to victories over Hopkins and UMBC. Fiorito has started all four games this season and has recorded 27 saves, including 11 in the 14-8 win against the Blue Jays.

Another freshman stands out on defense. Following tradition, long-stick defenseman Chad Wiedmaier is the most recent Delbarton graduate to join Princeton lacrosse. Like Hewit and Cocoziello before him, Wiedmaier has made an immediate impact on the Tiger defense upon arrival. His performance at Johns Hopkins, in which he held attack Steven Boyle to one goal on seven shots and matched that point total with an assist of his own, earned him the honor of Ivy League Rookie of the Week.

Wiedmaier, along with Hirsch, senior defenseman Chris Peyser and the rest of the Princeton defensive unit, will have his work cut out for him against Hofstra and Albany.

Pride attack Jay Card has posted eight goals and three assists this season, pairing up with senior midfielder Michael Colleluori to account for half of the team’s point total.

Albany will bring a similar style of play. Led by senior attack Corey Small, who has scored 12 goals this season, the Great Danes feature an incredibly efficient offensive front with a combined shot-on-goal percentage of 72 percent. Like Hofstra, however, Albany still seems to be in search of an effective defensive unit to record crucial stops. The Great Danes’ defense allows a shade less than 9.5 goals a game and could be easy pickings for the Tigers’ sharpshooters.

“It feels OK to be 4-0, but we can’t be satisfied,” Hirsch said. “We know we have a lot to improve on, and we are all focused on just getting better in practice every day.”

In case you were wondering, Princeton finished the 1997 season 15-0 with a national championship.