Don?t look for Dave Pietramala to be the most popular person at the next Johns Hopkins men?slacrosse reunion.
For the fourth straight game Saturday, Hopkins played against a team with a coach with strong ties to the Blue Jays program. And for the third straight game, Hopkins came away with a win as it held off a late Hofstra rally to win, 9-8 in front of an announced crowd of 1,503 at Homewood Field.
The win spoiled the return of first-year Pride coach Seth Tierney, a 1991 Hopkins graduate who spent the past six seasons as the Blue Jays offensive coordinator.
Freshman attack Steven Boyle scored three goals and senior attack Jake Byrne had two goals and two assists for No. 5 Hopkins (3-1). Freshman midfielder Michael Kimmel and junior attack Kevin Huntley each finished with a goal and assist for Hopkins, which travels to Syracuse Saturday.
“Give Hofstra credit,” Pietramala said. “Coach Tierney?s done a great job with them and you knew they were going to play hard for 60 minutes. Just like we pride ourselves on winning one-goal games, I think that?s something he?s taken from here and he prides himself on that as well. You knew they were going to battle until the end.”
Hopkins appeared to be in complete control against Hofstra as it jumped out to a 5-1 halftime lead. But the Pride (1-2), rallied in the third quarter as they won four of five face-offs and outscored the Blue Jays, 4-1, during that span and trailed 6-5 going into the fourth quarter.
Junior midfielder Paul Rabil and junior attack Michael Doneger tried to put the game out of reach by scoring in the first two minutes of the fourth quarter, which gave Hopkins an 8-5 lead with 13:46 remaining. But, Hofstra had one last rally in it as it scored three of the game?s final four goals to pull within one with 3:38 remaining following a goal from Tom Interlicchio.
“It?s always difficult when a coach predicts what you?re going to do,” Byrne said. “I thought they had great goalie play and have some of the best short-stick midfielders in the country so it?s like playing against six long poles out there. That makes it difficult to get in the flow.”
The Pride actually had one last chance to tie the game as sophomore attack Tom Dooley fired a shot from about 12 yards back in the final second, but it sailed too high as time expired
Dooley finished with two goals and an assist, while freshman attack Dan Stein had three goals and freshman goalie Danny Orlando had 13 saves for Hofstra.
“I?m never happy when we lose, otherwise I?m in the wrong profession,” Tierney said. “But, I?m proud of our guys how they fought because anytime you spot a team like Hopkins a 5-1 lead you have your work cut out for you.”
Hofstra?s next game is this coming Saturday when it hosts No. 7 Princeton.
