On the surface of it, what’s the big deal? Dartmouth and Hofstra played yesterday in a game featuring a 5-3 Hofstra team looking to beat a struggling 2-4 Dartmouth squad and retain their Top 15 national ranking. Most readers might wonder why this site is doing a story about this game at all? For a simple reason: for unless my research is off this is the first time in NCAA Division One history that two Florida goaltending products have faced off against each other as starters. St. Thomas Aquinas’ Chris Selva and Saint Andrew’s Bernie Susskind, long-time friends and travel team teammates, started respectively for Hofstra and Dartmouth. It was an interesting tale of two careers. Susskind, now a senior, had to wait his turn to take over the reins from longtime Dartmouth starter Fergus Campbell. He finally earned the starter’s job and has shown his worth; including an 18-save masterpiece against North Carolina in Chapel Hill (if you have access to ESPN3 you can watch his performance on the Archive page). Selva, a sophomore, followed in the path of graduating goalie Andrew Gvodzen until winning the job this year. Selva’s performance includes a Colonial League defensive player of the week award. In one big way it was a role reversal. If memory serves Susskind’s SA team beat Selva’s STA team every time they played. Even after Susskind graduated Selva was frustrated by the SA program. This time Selva came out the winner, with Hofstra hanging on for the 11-9 victory on Long Island. Both played well, but Chris did put up the better statistics, saving 14 of 23 shots while Bernie saved 7 of 18. Of course, Chris’ team is better this year, but isn’t that justice for once? Both Bernie and Chris seemed to note the moment, as the feature photo taken before the game indicates. And for the kids reading this out there just remember, this won’t be the last such instance. Another nice story highlighting the growth of our favorite sport down here. So kids, when you hear some other state’s lacrosse fan put down the quality of the game here, just give them a sly smile. You know the one, the smile you give when you know something they don’t . . . and just do your talking on the field. Congratulations to both Bernie and Chris! Keep it going!