Men's Lacrosse: Hopkins will be tough test for Tiger squad

The game on Saturday is important for the No. 10 Tigers (0-1) that could set the tone for the rest of the season.

Princeton will play its second away game in as many weeks in hopes of the first victory of the season. The Tigers opened the season with a disappointing loss last Saturday to No. 6 Hofstra.

After a strong showing in the first quarter, the Tigers allowed five goals in the second period and scored just one. They never recovered and eventually fell to the Pride 11-9.

“We need to stay out of the penalty box,” head coach Chris Bates said. “That was one of the reasons why we had some trouble, and Hofstra made us pay for it.”

Princeton had five minutes of penalties during the match compared to Hofstra’s three.

“We put a lot of pressure on the goal, but when crunch time came we weren’t cohesive and that led to some turnovers,” Bates added.

The Tigers also have to worry about injuries to several key players. Senior attackman and co-captain Jack McBride was taken out of play with a knee injury and his status remains uncertain. McBride — one of the nation’s premier scorers — provided the assist that led to Princeton’s overtime goal during last year’s matchup to give Princeton the 11-10 win over Hopkins.

Senior attackman and co-captain Chris McBride did not play against Hofstra due to a concussion obtained in practice. Junior attackman Alex Capretta also did not play because of an injury.

Still, there were some promising developments for Princeton during the first outing of the season, as sophomore attackman Forest Sonnenfeldt scored three goals and earned four ground balls.

Highly-anticipated freshman midfielder Tom Schreiber has already given credence to the hopes of his status as an immediate contributor after netting two goals during his first collegiate start.

Bates said that face-offs were a large issue for the Tigers last week and need to be improved in order to beat Johns Hopkins this weekend.

“We put that under the microscope this week,” Bates said, “and if you tell us that we can win a face-off 50 to 60 percent of the time, I’ll be happy.”

Get the best of the ‘Prince’ delivered straight to your inbox. Subscribe now »

That will be a formidable task for the Tigers, who will have to face off against Hopkins senior midfielder Matt Dolente, who has racked up nearly 250 faceoff wins, the ninth-highest total in Hopkins history.

This year’s Hopkins team will certainly be a formidable opponent. The Blue Jays are 3-0 for the second straight year and are looking to be 4-0 for the first time since 2005, when they won the NCAA Division I title.

So far this season Hopkins has presented itself as an extremely strong offensive team, scoring the first goal of all three of its games. The Blue Jays have outscored opponents 10-4 in the first quarter and 18-4 in the third.

The Hopkins offense will be led by attackmen Zach Palmer, Chris Boland and Kyle Wharton. Palmer leads the team with eight goals and six assists, and the three have already combined for a total of 21 goals.

However, the Hopkins squad is certainly a young team that may be unnerved by the magnitude of the Princeton matchup. Prior to the 2011 season, the 47-man team combined for a mere 91 career starts.

The game will be broadcast on ESPNU from Homewood Field this Saturday at 1 p.m.

“It’s a good rivalry,” Bates said. “They play with a lot of energy and a lot of confidence and they are multi-dimensional on offense, [but] hopefully we can come out with a win.”