HOFSTRA 9, PRINCETON 5
Plenty of help up frontPride goalie Southard makes just six saves thanks to solid defenseBY TOM ROCK Newsday Staff Correspondent March 19, 2006PRINCETON, NJ - Matt Southard's stats won't impress. He'll probably never win Goalie of the Week or other honors the big stoppers in college lacrosse garner. And that's by design. The fifth-year senior at the back of Hofstra's defense is usually the Pride's last chance at stopping an opponent's shot. More often than not, however, it never gets that far. The fluid, amoebic schemes in front of him executed by an experienced and largely anonymous group typically allow only a handful of shots to reach the crease. The ones that do slip through are often from obtuse angles and easy stops for the goalie. "It's great if I can get a save here or there, but the defense makes it easy," Southard said. "The main part is just to stay focused for the 60 minutes." Southard made a ho-hum six saves yesterday in a game that was anything but blasé for the Pride. No. 9 Hofstra (4-1) earned its third impressive win in eight days, beating No. 6 Princeton, 9-5, in front of 1,325 at Class of 1952 Stadium. Hofstra's four-goal run from the third into the fourth quarter turned a chess match into a blowout. But it was the defense, which allowed two second-half goals, that has been the consistent factor not just in this win but the previous two. "We've got some guys who are unheralded so they really accept their role and they accept coaching," Hofstra coach John Danowski said of the Pride defense. "They know they don't have big names or a big background. You have to give credit to the kids for playing the game the way we want them to play it." Sean McCarthy, for instance, was a goalie his senior year at Hicksville High School and is now a starting defenseman for the Pride. Julian Watts, who also plays football at Hofstra, was a longstick defensive midfielder until the middle of last week when he picked up a short stick to pitch in. Hofstra's defense isn't all no-name. Brett Moyer is an All-American and Kevin Unterstein is on his way to becoming one at defensive middie. And Southard has played with the confidence of a fifth-year senior, even if he isn't called upon to do it constantly. Yesterday he stuffed a point-blank shot from Princeton's Tommy Davis (Division) with five minutes left in the game, going low then coming up for the stop to keep the Tigers from thinking about a comeback. He also outsprinted Peter Trombino to the sideline to earn possession after that same shot went out of bounds. John Keysor had two goals and an assist and Chris Unterstein had a goal and two assists for the Pride. Keysor, who scored the game-winning goal against North Carolina on Wednesday, gave Hofstra the lead for good in this game as well, making it 4-3 with 2:14 left in the second half. Hofstra dominated Princeton (2-2) statistically. The Pride had 37 shots to Princeton's 19, 33 ground balls to Princeton's 14. Joe Mascaretti won 14 of 17 faceoffs, including the first six of the game. About the only stat Princeton competed in was saves. Sophomore Alex Hewitt, who made 20 stops and gathered national attention against Virginia last week, made 13 saves yesterday. It was a stat Hofstra was willing to concede. Saturday Notre Dame at Hofstra 1:30 p.m. Radio: WNYG (1440) HOFSTRA 9 PRINCETON 5 |