Men's Lacrosse: Tigers open with away win

The men’s lacrosse team’s biggest question mark heading into this season was how well the team could handle the loss of its entire defensive core from the year before, most notably the unanimous Ivy League Player of the Year, goalkeeper Tyler Fiorito ’12. Despite a slow start to the game, this year’s defense proved that it is up to the challenge as the team beat Hofstra 10-7 in the Tigers’ season opener.

The defense, returning zero members from last year’s starters, struggled early on as it allowed three consecutive goals in the first nine minutes of the match after the Tigers took first blood off the stick of sophomore attackman Mike MacDonald. This gave the Pride what would be its largest lead of the match at 3-1.

The Tigers exploded offensively to respond to this early multi-goal deficit, scoring five consecutive goals to close out the first half with a 6-3 lead. MacDonald tallied two of those goals, giving him a hat trick before halftime, and freshman attackman Ryan Ambler scored the first goal of his Princeton career.

“I don’t think it was really anything that changed,” junior midfielder Tom Schreiber said of the impressive run. “It was more of us just staying positive and not panicking and just speaking to what we wanted to do out there. We just put a couple of goals in, and the defense did a great job of stifling their offense.”

The Pride would not give up easily though, as it outscored the Tigers 3-1 in the third period to cut the Tigers deficit back down to one. The three goals came on 14 shots, which was as many as the Pride had taken in the entire first half of the game. Despite the three goals allowed, freshman goaltender Matt O’Conner played well in the quarter, recording two of his six saves of the day to prevent Hofstra from tying the game back up.

“Matt O’Conner did great in the goal even though it’s really tough to start there as a freshman,” Schreiber said of the rookie’s performance.

The Pride was not able to continue its momentum in the final period, as the Tigers countered Hofstra’s impressive third period with a 3-1 period of their own to seal the 10-7 victory.

The performance of the freshmen was a highlight of the game, as the team featured four rookie starters, with freshman midfielder James Froccaro, brother of senior midfielder Jeff Frocarro, and freshman defender Mark Strabo, brother of junior midfielder Jack Strabo, as the third and fourth starters in addition to Ambler and O’Conner.

Ambler finished the day with three assists in addition to his lone goal to give him a team-high of four points. The four points tied a Princeton record for most points in the first game of the season for a freshman. Only three other Tigers have ever accomplished this, with the most recent being Ryan Boyle ’04 in the 2001 team’s season opener against Johns Hopkins. The impressive performance led to Ambler being named the first Ivy League Rookie of the Week this season.

“They definitely don’t play like freshmen, but rather like guys who have been on this team for years,” Schreiber said. “Those guys play above their age, which makes it easier on us, and they really stepped up.”

Schreiber also had a good game, totaling three points on two goals and an assist. The impressive performance raises his career totals against Hofstra to seven goals and five assists in three games. Schreiber has been a very important part of the Tigers’ offense for the past two years, having either scored or assisted on an outstanding 34 percent of the team’s goals last season. He was close to that mark in this game, being a part of 30 percent of the team’s 10 goals.

The Tigers are now preparing to travel to Baltimore next Friday to face an undefeated Johns Hopkins team next — a game that will be televised nationally on ESPNU. Last year’s matchup against Johns Hopkins, hosted by Princeton, did not go favorably for the Tigers. Princeton lost to the then No. 2 Blue Jays 8-10. Though Johns Hopkins has dropped to No. 3 in the rankings this year, the Tigers will need to ride the momentum of their young players.