It only took moments before Jay Pfeifer showed just how quickly he wants to forget about it.

‘We just gotta look ahead to Princeton,’ the Syracuse men’s lacrosse goalie said, 31 words into an answer to a question about Johns Hopkins.

Clearly, Pfeifer doesn’t want to look behind. Because staring him in the face would be what he called one of the most embarrassing games of his lacrosse career.

Syracuse has a chance to make up for it this Saturday, when the Orangemen face Princeton at 3 p.m. at Class of 1952 Stadium in Princeton, N.J.

It’ll be Pfeifer’s first time back on the turf since a 17-5 pummeling at the hands of Johns Hopkins. In that game, Pfeifer played just longer than a half. By halftime, he had faced 28 shots, made eight saves and allowed 10 goals.

The reason? Hopkins won 13 of 17 face-offs by halftime, a number unapproached in almost any other game.

Hopkins’ high-powered offense also left Pfeifer no down time in the crease. The shots came one after another. Pfeifer was always on high alert.

Then backup Nick Donatelli replaced Pfeifer.

‘I had a hard time speculating on (whether Jay should come out),’ Donatelli said. ‘People in the stands say, ‘He just got scored on. He shouldn’t get scored on.’ But we’re in a unique position. We see the guy was 3 feet away. He should have been scored on.’

Donatelli witnessed that firsthand. He allowed five straight goals after he entered the game in the third quarter, also because Syracuse (3-1) couldn’t win a face-off.

But pulling Pfeifer for Donatelli did accomplish one thing. It gave Pfeifer perhaps his first break during the game. It also saved the junior from what happened in last year’s Final Four.

Although Hopkins blew out Syracuse then, too, 17-9 – incidentally, Pfeifer said SU tried to use that as motivation this past weekend – Syracuse coaches stuck with Pfeifer, something many disagreed with at the time.

Pfeifer calls that one ‘a little more embarrassing, just because it was the Final Four.’ Pfeifer played all 60 minutes of that game.

‘The Syracuse coaches, quite frankly, came under heat for keeping Jay out there,’ Pfeifer’s father, Gerry, said. ‘I think they did the right thing taking him out (against Hopkins), give him a little breather.’

Either way, Princeton (3-1) should offer a more favorable matchup. The No. 5 Tigers use a more slow-paced offense, a sharp contrast to the attacking style of Hopkins.

Princeton works the ball around at a mind-numbing pace until it gets the look it wants. Though that style won’t yield the high-scoring game like last week, it allows for more down time, which is a mixed blessing. Of course there should be less scoring, but the ball-control style sometimes can cause a goalie’s mind to wander, Donatelli said.

‘I can’t remember anything that happens during a game unless I see it afterward,’ Donatelli said. ‘It’s the well-worn clich. The zone, or whatever. It’s not like, ‘Wow, I have to concentrate right now.’ It’s just a self-preservation instinct out there.

‘They have a very deliberate style. They pass it around for eons looking for the perfect shot. They’re very patient.’

Said Pfeifer: ‘(The slow pace) is annoying. But teams slow it down all the time. It’s nice to get in a rhythm. You like to see a team shoot a little more often.’

Then, Pfeifer paused for a second before realizing what he said.

‘But facing Hopkins, they shot all the time,’ he said. ‘So definitely somewhere in between.’

Published on March 25, 2004 at 12:00 pm