By Max Sass, Sports Editor

Men’s lacrosse head coach Seth Tierney looked down the sideline during Saturday’s game against Princeton and for the first time in his tenure at Hofstra, he was not looking at his uncle, Bill Tierney. Chris Bates, formerly of Drexel, replaced Bill Tierney, who left this offseason for Denver.

Despite losing their legendary head coach, the Princeton Tigers remain one of the best teams in the nation and were ranked ninth heading into the weekend’s matchup against the eleventh ranked Pride.

The Pride fell to Princeton in Bates’ debut 17-14. Seth Tierney was not happy with his team’s results, particularly his defense, which allowed the 17 goals. “We didn’t play Hofstra lacrosse,” he said.

The Pride fan base travelled well, splitting Princeton’s Class of 1952 Stadium almost evenly between the Tigers’ black and orange clad fans and those in the Pride’s blue and gold.

Despite the large Pride presence in the stands, the team on the field immediately fell behind 3-0 to an intimidating Princeton attack. Cousins Jack and Chris McBride, who combined to score six goals in the game, led Princeton up front.

Much debate surrounded who would be between the pipes for the Pride. Incumbent sophomore Andrew Gvozden got the start, but was replaced after halftime by freshman Rob Bellairs. “I thought both of them were okay and I thought both of them made a couple of mistakes,” said Tierney.

Gvozden allowed nine goals on 16 shots in the first half and Bellairs allowed eight goals on 10 shots in the second half. “Rob gave up eight goals in the second half [but] six were from six yards in or less,” said Tierney. “It becomes a bit more complicated then which goalie made the most saves.

Tierney did not hint as to which of his young net minders would get the start on Saturday against Brown, but Tierney may once again opt to split the game between the two goalies.

The offense scored 14 goals in the game, thanks in large to junior attack Jamie Lincoln. Lincoln was named CAA Player of the Week, a reward for scoring four goals and an assist in his Pride debut.

“It was not as clean as we would have liked, but it was efficient,” said Tierney. “I am not sure when the last time a team put 14 goals on Princeton.” The last time Princeton had given up 14 goals was March 1, 2008 when they lost to Johns Hopkins 9-14.

The other half of the “Ontario Onslaught”, junior attack Jay Card, scored two goals and added two assists but did not play as well as he could have. “He was a little out of whack, out of sorts,” said Tierney.

Card scored two goals on nine shots and was twice penalized. “Jay did not lose this game for us,” said Tierney. “The offense did not lose this game for us.”
Tierney places the blame for the loss on his defense and his young midfielders. “We just did not play well, we did not talk, we did not communicate,” he said.

Other impressive offesnsive contributions came from sophomore middie Mike DeNapoli who scored three goals as well as one assist and junior attack Stephen Bentz who tallied two goals and two assists. The Pride had one goal each from junior middie Dan Stein, sophomore middie Brad Loizeaux and freshman middie Adrian Sorichetti. Junior middie Steve DeNapoli led the team with seven ground balls.

Freshman faceoff John Antoniades won 21 of the 30 faceoffs he took, but committed a key violation with 28 seconds left in the first half that led to Princeton’s ninth goal.

The Pride evened up the score at 7-7 with 3:15 left in the first half to take the momentum, but soon handed it right back to the Tigers. Princeton scored two goals in the last 28 seconds of the half, to take a 9-7 lead into the locker room. “I thought we might have lose the game in the last minute of the half,” said Tierney.

The Pride never led in the game but was down just one, 15-14 with 6:24 remaining in the game. The Pride missed a number of opportunities are were unable to tie the game late, before Princeton tacked on two more goals in the last 2:09 to give them their total of 17. “I don’t think we lost the game in the 15-14 range,” said Tierney. “I think we lost the game in the first half.”

The Pride look to even up their record against another Ivy League school this upcoming Saturday at 7 p.m., when the no. 15 Brown Bears come to James Shuart Stadium.
 

Coach Seth Tierney draws up a play in the final minutes of his team’s 17-14 loss at Princeton. (Max Sass/ The Chronicle)