Team agree rematch will be with different looks
By: Bob Nuse
Dave Pietramala knows that if his Johns Hopkins men’s lacrosse team happens to meet up with Princeton again somewhere down the road, both teams will be vastly different than they were during Saturday’s season-opener between the teams at Princeton’s Class of 1952 Stadium.
"Both teams made mistakes and it looked like the first game of the season," said Pietramala, whose Blue Jays held off a late Princeton rally and emerged with a 10-8 win on Saturday. "Both teams will be different at the end of the year."
Princeton coach Bill Tierney hopes Pietramala is right. His Tigers gave up four goals in the final five minutes of the first half and found themselves in an 8-3 hole at the break. And even though they rallied to get within 8-7 by the end of the third quarter, it wasn’t enough to prevent the Tigers’ second-straight season-opening loss to Hopkins.
"You feel crummy when you lose it, but we all know this is the right way to open the season," said Tierney, whose team will host Virginia 1 p.m. Saturday. "If you win it, you have one in your back pocket. But if you lose, you still feel crummy.
"We gave away some goals at the end of the first half. We came out and played harder in the second half and chipped away, got back in the game. But credit Hopkins with making the shots when they needed to make shots."
Princeton made shots in the third quarter and because of it was able to walk away from the opener with something to feel good about. Down 8-3 at the half, goals by Sean Hartofolis, Josh White, Matt Trevenen and Owen Daly all in less than a four minute span at the end of the third quarter cut the lead to 8-7.
It stayed that way until Adam Doneger scored with 5:54 left to make it 9-7. Kyle Barrie scored later to make it 10-7 before a goal by Jason Doneger with just over two minutes left got the Tigers back within two goals.
"We came out knowing we couldn’t get behind early," said Pietramala, whose team lost to Princeton in the NCAA semifinals last year. "We talked about taking the game in five-minute increments and just taking it from there."
Hopkins did enough to emerge with a win in the traditional season opener. Now the Tigers need to focus on Virginia and not starting a trend toward a repeat of last year’s 1-3 start.
"Every year is different," said Princeton junior Ryan Boyle, who had a pair of assists against Hopkins. "Last year they lost to us in the playoffs after they beat us in the regular season. So I think both teams had a little revenge thing going. They executed today and you have to tip your hat to them. We were getting shots, but their goalie played great."
And because of that strong play in goal, Princeton wasn’t able to overcome a five-goal deficit against a very good team.
"I think we learned that we weren’t very good at learning from our scrimmages," Tierney said. "We didn’t get off to a good start in our scrimmages and we didn’t get off to a good start today. But we did some good things. The kids played well in the second half. I thought our freshmen, Tony Vita and Ryan Schoening, did a good job.
"I think Hopkins was more ready at the outset than we were and you have to credit their staff for that. They did a better job than we did."
But as Princeton learned last year, a loss on the first Saturday in March doesn’t mean the end of your season.
"Hopefully we’ll learn from this," Tierney said. "There is still a lot of lacrosse left to be played."
And when the end of the season comes around, the Tigers know a loss in March doesn’t mean a loss in May.