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Princeton Falls At Hofstra In Season-Opener
February 26, 2011 | Men's Lacrosse
Tom Schreiber needed less than 10 seconds to electrify the Princeton fans at Hofstra Saturday afternoon and less than five minutes to score his first two collegiate goals. Midway through the firtst quarter, Hofstra needed a timeout, when it looked like the game might be getting away.
And then the game did get away. From Princeton.
Hofstra withstood Princeton's early barrage, using a dominant face-off performance from John Antonaides and a huge edge in time of possession to knock off Princeton 11-9 in front of 2,180 at Shuart Stadium Saturday in a matchup of teams ranked seventh in one poll and eighth in the other.
The loss came in the season-opener for Princeton, while Hofstra improved to 3-0. Hofstra now leads the all-time series with Princeton 13-12.
"We didn't have possession enough," said Princeton coach Chris Bates. "They're not a team that's going to beat itself. They're not going to throw it away a ton. That was as big a difference as anything."
The first seven minutes of the game couldn't have been scripted any better for Princeton - except for one ominous warning of what was about to happen.
Schreiber, the highly regarded freshman, scored 53 seconds into the game - and about seven seconds or so after he first touched the ball - to give Princeton a 1-0 lead. It was 4-1 Princeton after goals by Jack McBride, Forest Sonnenfeldt and Schreiber followed, but it was Hofstra's lone goal in that run, a Jamie Lincoln goal that evened at 1-1 on a two-man advantage, that was the first indication that all was not well.
"We had great energy," Bates said. "I thought we might have been able to get some separation on them. But then we had the penalties and some turnovers and they got back into it."
Hofstra would go 4 for 4 on extra-man opportunities, all of which were in the first half, and they would turn two Princeton turnovers into four goals as the momentum turned. Twice Hofstra forced turnovers after Princeton got defensive stops, and both times Hofstra scored, drew a penalty and scored again.
Antonaides was 8 for 9 in the first quarter alone, which ended with Princeton ahead 5-4, and Princeton had its last lead at 6-5 early in the second when Sonnenfeldt scored his third.
The Pride roared back, scoring the final four goals of the first half, including two nine seconds apart at one point, to lead 9-6 at the half.
After the 15 first-half goals, there would be only five in the tightly played second half, and the first two went to Princeton when Mark Feild and Jeff Froccaro scored 1:01 apart to make it 9-8.
Hofstra came back with the next two, scoring on Drew Coholan's goal with 5:21 left in the third and then on Lincoln's fourth of the day with 7:16 to go to make 11-8.
Froccaro's second made it 11-9 with 1:25 to go, and Princeton had another chance after that but came up empty.
"They possessed the ball well," Schreiber said. "They kept our offense from the ball. When we had it, I thought we flowed well. They just took the momentum away from us."
Hofstra outshot Princeton 40-28 and had a 31-16 edge on ground balls. Tyler Fiorito made 15 saves for Princeton, while Andrew Gvozden made one in the first half for Hofstra and then had five in the second half.
Sonnenfeldt's three goals came after he had four all of last year as a freshman.
Princeton is at Johns Hopkins next Saturday at 1 and then has its home opener Friday, March 11, against North Carolina.