Faceoff edge helps Hopkins oust Hofstra

BALTIMORE -- Two of the quickest draws in the East, Johns Hopkins' Matt Dolente and Hofstra's John Antoniades, faced off Saturday in the opening game of the NCAA Tournament at Johns Hopkins.

Dolente entered as the NCAA's faceoff leader, winning 67.3 percent. Antoniades, third nationally, was right on his heels at 66.1 percent. The opening draw was set for high noon.

Antoniades won that first meeting and promptly scored six seconds into the game -- but Dolente wound up winning more often as Hopkins dominated the time of possession and pulled away for a 12-5 victory.

Hopkins (13-2) -- which scored the game's final six goals -- will face Villanova or Denver in a quarterfinal game Saturday at Hofstra.

"You need the ball if you're going to beat the No. 3 team in the country," Hofstra coach Seth Tierney said. "I can't remember us having any long possessions in the second half. Our defense got tired."

Hofstra (13-3) took a quick 2-0 lead and tied it at 4 six seconds before halftime on Brad Loizeaux's goal, but Dolente won five of six draws in the third quarter and wound up winning 13 of 20 to Antoniades' 4 of 14. Dolente also had a game-high eight ground balls.

"He was winning them all clean," Hofstra senior Steven DeNapoli said. "He's good at picking the ball up. It's hard to stop."

Hofstra senior Jay Card, who had a goal and two assists, said: "It's tougher than you think. The clock's ticking down and you want to make something happen, but you can't."

Kyle Wharton had three goals and an assist for Johns Hopkins, including a behind-the-back shot that made it 8-5. Chris Boland (three assists) and John Greeley had two goals each for the Blue Jays.

Hopkins went ahead for good at 5-4 on Rob Guida's goal with 12:12 left in the third quarter. Wharton, who has scored 31 goals this season, made it 6-4 with 7:29 remaining.

Adrian Sorichetti scored with 4:16 left in the third quarter, but that was Hofstra's final goal. Said Tierney: "You get to 6-5, you don't think that's the last goal you're going to score."

Knowing that the chance to play a quarterfinal game at home had slipped away was tough to swallow for Hofstra's seniors.

"I'd love to play at home in the quarterfinals," DeNapoli said. "Around Hofstra, we have pictures of the crowd when we hosted, I think in '99. I'd pass that up for the four years I spent with these seniors. We had some great times."

Card, who graduates second on Hofstra's all-time scoring list with 122 goals, echoed the sentiment. "No regrets," he said. "I went in not knowing what to expect. It was probably the best four years of my life."

After Antoniades gave Hofstra the 1-0 lead with his second goal of the season, Card scored off a feed from Jamie Lincoln with 11:18 left in the first quarter to make it 2-0. It was his 29th goal of the season.

Hopkins answered with four straight goals, but Hofstra ended a 26-minute scoring drought when Ian Braddish fed Kevin Ford for his 16th goal with 1:35 left in the second quarter. Then Loizeaux tied it, but the second half belonged to Hopkins.