The Dartmouth men's lacrosse team traveled to Long Island, N.Y. on Tuesday night to take on Hofstra University in hopes of breaking a five-game losing streak. The Big Green (2-6, 0-2 Ivy) got off to a slow start, however, and was unable to overcome an early deficit, dropping its sixth straight game, 9-5.
The first seven minutes of the game were fairly even, with each team notching several shots on sustained periods of offensive pressure. The final eight minutes of the first frame belonged to Hofstra (5-5, 1-2 CAA), however. The Pride scored three times in the final 8:06, with two of the goals coming off Big Green turnovers.
Dartmouth coughed it up just five times in the quarter but was only able to take possession away from Hofstra three times. The Pride dominated the shot category, ripping 14 at goalie Fergus Campbell '12. The Big Green only managed four in the frame.
"We just need to come out ready to play and put a full 60 minutes together," midfielder Chris Costabile '13 said.
Hofstra carried that momentum into the second quarter, and before the Big Green could gain possession of the ball, attacker Mike DeNapoli had scored his third goal of the game to extend the Pride's lead to 4-0. Shortly thereafter, Hofstra took a penalty. The tide began to turn for the Big Green, who took four shots during the man-up opportunity, but Dartmouth could not find a way past goalkeeper Andrew Gvozden.
Soon after Hofstra gained full strength, the Pride took another penalty. The Big Green did not squander this opportunity, converting just under 20 seconds into the man-advantage thanks to Colin Delaney '12. Delaney received a pass from Drew Tunney '12 and let it rip, tickling the twine to pull the Big Green within three.
Unfortunately, the Big Green could not maintain the pressure and surrendered two more goals to the Pride in the frame. The first Hofstra goal came on a man-up opportunity. The Big Green trimmed the deficit to four with a goal by Brendan Rotanz '14 as the Pride took a 6-2 lead into halftime.
The third quarter was far more even, with the Big Green notching 12 shots to the Pride's 11, Hofstra winning the ground ball battle by one and both teams forcing three turnovers. Unfortunately for the Big Green, they could do no more than tie the second half against the Pride.
Nikki Dysenchuk '13 scored on an isolation play just under two and a half minutes into the third quarter, but Dartmouth could not get any closer than three goals. The Pride scored at the 8:58 mark in the frame and increased their lead to five with 1:50 to go in the quarter.
With just 48 seconds left in the penultimate quarter, Costabile cut the lead back to four off of an assist from Tunney. Costabile carried the momentum into the fourth, notching two shots in the first four minutes.
The team fed off his energy, tallying five shots in the first four minutes and limiting Hofstra to under a minute of possession.
The Big Green caught a break when a Pride player was hauled off for cross-checking. On the subsequent man-up opportunity, Costabile netted his second goal of the game, again from Tunney, to cut the lead to three.
The Big Green was unable to cut further into the lead thanks to increased defensive pressure from the Pride, who limited the Big Green to just three shots in the last 9:23 of the game. The Pride re-established their four-goal lead at the 5:28 mark and rode that lead to the end of the game to win, 9-5.
Falling into an early hole and furiously coming back in the second half has become a recent trend for the Big Green, especially during the current losing streak. The team has trailed at the half during all six games of the streak.
"I wouldn't say we're as much of a second-half team as we are a team that's not going to just lay down and quit," Costabile said. "No matter what the score is, no one on the team is going to stop playing hard until the game is over, and I think that is something our team thrives on. Although we get down early sometimes, the other teams always know it's going to be a dogfight when they play us."
The high scorer for the Big Green was Tunney, with three assists. Costabile led the team in goals on Tuesday with two.
Campbell was spectacular in the cage, stopping 12 shots, double the total of his opposite number Gvozden. The clearing game hurt the Big Green on Tuesday, as Dartmouth converted 13 of 16 clears not bad on its own, but not as good as the Pride's perfect 16-for-16. The Big Green was also only able to score on two of its seven extra-man opportunities.
Costabile said that Hofstra took some shots from a longer distance, but that was by design.
"We have all the faith in the world in Fergus to stop anything outside of 10 to 12 yards, so defensively we have been packing it in more and it has been working for us on that end of the field," Costabile said.
The team returns to Hanover this Saturday when Dartmouth will attempt to end its losing streak against Yale University at Scully-Fahey Field.
"We have a huge game against Yale this Saturday, and everyone on our team is confident and ready to go," Costabile said. "Our entire season is still in front of us, and winning Saturday will put us back in the driver's seat for getting into the Ivy League tournament at the end of the year."
