By Andrew Scharff

The way Seth Tierney walked out of James M. Shuart Stadium Sunday afternoon said it all. All anyone had to do is look at the sombering facial expression of the head coach to know what happened.

Hofstra, by far played their best game since their season opening win against UMass, but they still lost a heartbreaker to No. 8 Princeton 5-4. Princeton sophomore attackman Tommy Davis scored with eight seconds left to give the Tigers the victory.

“We didn’t lose the game on the last play,” said Tierney after the game. “We just got to make more plays during the course of the game, so we are not in the position that last play happens.”

“I love our schedule. Every week is a challenge. When you go against a defensive mind like Bill Tierney and Alex Hewit, it’s a challenge,” added Tierney. “Today we rose to that challenge but the scoreboard doesn’t say it.”

Princeton might be the best 2-2 team Hofstra will see all year. With such a young and inexperienced team, Hofstra was the so called underdog but they didn’t play like one. The unranked Pride struggled in the first half of both of their last two games, didn’t struggle in this one.

“I thought we got some real quality looks early. It not like we did things different, we did just started to do things better,” said Tierney. “But today shows we have to do it even better than what we did today in order to get some wins.”

Offensively the Pride had many good looks and quality chances on net. But Princeton goalie Alex Hewit was up to the task, stopping everything the Pride threw his way. Defensively, the Pride was equal to task despite being outshot 16-8. Freshman goalie Danny Orlando kept the Pride in the game as for every save Hewit made, Orlando answered right back.

As the first quarter started both goalies were called on to make save after save and it looked as if neither goalie would let anything in. But about eight minutes into the game Davis would open the scoring.

Hofstra would tie the game at 1 as Anthony Muscarella would score his first goal of the season. The lead would be short-lived as Bob Schneider would score on the man-up to give Princeton a 2-1 lead going into halftime.

After the break it looked like Princeton would pull away as Mark Kovler took a pass from Josh Lesko for his seventh goal of the season. But Mike Colleluori would answer for the Pride as he was able to put the ball of the post and pass Hewit.

But Princeton would take away any momentum from the Pride as Mike DeSantis beat Orlando as he was being knocked down by a Hofstra defender.

With the Pride down two and only 15 minutes left, Hofstra’s young guns showed what they were made of. Muscarella scored his second goal of the game as he let go of a rocket of a shot, which found its way past Hewit. And then with the extra-man, Colleluori struck again as scored from eight yards out off a pass from Mike Unterstein.

With the game tied four each team had opportunities to break the tie. Hofstra had the first possession, but Hewit stopped everything else the Pride threw at him. And with 19 seconds left Princeton called timeout.

After the timeout Princeton attackman Peter Trombino took possession of the ball. Hofstra defenders, who were good all day, went toward Trombino who passed the ball Davis who was alone in front of the Hofstra net. Davis let go of 12 yard bounce shot that found its way past Orlando with only eight seconds left in the game.

“I just turned around and I was a little shocked that there was no one around him,” said Orlando of the game winning goal. “I didn’t know what to do. I froze up because he was so alone and it just went right up over my stick. If I go back I think I could have got it.”

Hofstra tried to tie the game in a last ditch effort but Ryan Miller’s last second shot sailed high and wide.

But you have to give credit to Princeton head coach Bill Tierney, his staff and players. Despite almost giving up a two goal lead, the key for the visiting Tigers kept the Hofstra forwards in check. No Hofstra attackmen scored a point, as Princeton silenced the Pride’s main offensive weapon, as Tommy Dooley was a non-factor for the first time in his Hofstra career.

With the loss, Hofstra falls to 1-3, with three straight losses. The lost snapped a 16 game home winning streak, as they last time Hofstra lost at home was in 2005 against Villanova.

“I am a results guy,” said Tierney. “I need a little more weight on our side of the scoreboard.”

The next chance for Hofstra to put more weight on the scoreboard will be this Saturday as they travel to Delaware to open up CAA conference play with a tilt against the #14 ranked Blue Hens.

Anthony Muscarella and the Pride need to find their offense quick if they want to perform well in the conference.