Pride bounces back against Dartmouth
Hofstra attacker Mike DeNapoli looks to pass against St. John's during the NCAA Division I men's lacrosse game. (March 20, 2012) Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
Entering Tuesday, there was some sense that Hofstra lacrosse needed to shake itself out of shellshock after consecutive demoralizing defeats.
The good thing is the Pride didn't have much time to wallow. Two days after a double-overtime loss to Towson, the Pride rebounded with a 9-5 win over Dartmouth at Shuart Stadium.
This one (finally) was relatively stress-free. Hofstra controlled the action from the opening faceoff, leaping out to a 3-0 lead in the first quarter and extending it to 6-2 at halftime, its largest first-half margin of the season.
"This game gave us a bit of a confidence boost," defender Michael Hamilton said.
Hofstra was up by 8-4 entering the fourth quarter but avoided the lapses that have haunted it recently. After the Big Green (2-6) cut it to 8-5 with 9:23 remaining, Mike DeNapoli answered with a goal at 5:28 to let Hofstra (5-5) exhale a bit.
"That was the one thing we haven't had in the Drexel game and the Towson game -- we haven't had that play," Coach Seth Tierney said. "We needed that play."
DeNapoli scored three of Hofstra's first four goals and finished with a career-high four. John Antoniades won 9 of 14 faceoffs despite an injured left knee that required an MRI on Monday.
Both made Tuesday's performance a refreshing change after the last two games: crushing losses that featured sizable comebacks by Towson and Drexel. On Saturday, the Pride blew a six-goal, fourth quarter lead and fell to Towson, 10-9, in double overtime.
Afterward, Tierney could barely get out the words to describe Saturday's heartbreak, which looked like an unavoidable accident you could see unfolding from afar, as momentum built and built, all in Towson's favor.
It was obvious, Tierney said, that the players hadn't gotten over their loss to Drexel the week before, and so the same thing repeated itself. The defense tightened up. The looseness of the first three quarters was replaced by fear of another collapse, until just that very thing happened.
The loss dropped Hofstra to 1-2 in the Colonial Athletic Association and into precarious position for earning a spot in the four-team conference tournament with four games remaining.
But after a confidence-injecting win on Tuesday, Tierney said the team feels like it's "0-0" again.
"After losing a game like that," DeNapoli said, "you want to get back on the field and forget about it."
