Second Half Surge Leads Princeton
from press release
PRINCETON, N.J. - Bill Tierney's blueprint for
an improved 2009 for his Princeton men's lacrosse team revolves
around increased production from two sophomores and a senior on
attack and a deep corps of freshmen to energize his defense.
Opening Day certainly followed the script, though the curtain was a
little late in rising.
Princeton erupted in the second half to sprint past Canisius 14-6
in front of 1,403 at the Class of 1952 Stadium. The Tigers scored
eight times in the third quarter after trailing 3-2 at
intermission.
Princeton will now play Johns Hopkins next Saturday in the Konica
Minolta Face-Off Classic at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore.
Canisius, who fell to Colgate a week ago, slipped to 0-2.
It was the second straight year that Princeton used a big second
half to defeat Canisius on a cold February Saturday. The 2008
season started with a 13-6 win over Canisius that saw Princeton
score the final seven goals over the last 21 minutes of the
game.
That 2008 season would start off 7-4 and include a 4-0 start and
win over Cornell in the Ivy League, but losses to Dartmouth and
Brown to end the year cost the Tigers the league title and an NCAA
tournament spot. Since then, Princeton has gone to Europe for three
games and added the No. 1 freshman class in the country, according
to Inside Lacrosse.
"It took a little while to get going," said Princeton's Jack
McBride, who led Princeton with four goals and an assist. "It's the
first game. We took a lot of shots in the first half, but their
goalie was playing very well. We were a much different team in the
second half."
Princeton fired shots all day at the Griffs' net. The two goals in
the first half came on an astonishing 27 shots; the second half saw
Princeton score 12 times on 33 more shots. The 60 total shots were
nearly double Princeton's average of 32 per game a year ago and
marked the first time Princeton reached the 60 mark since going for
62 against Rutgers in 1997.
The attack unit of sophomore cousins Jack and Chris McBride and
senior Tommy Davis combined for nine goals, all of which came in
the second half.
"I thought Tommy could take his man in the first half, but we kept
getting in his way," Tierney said. "The message to the offense at
halftime was to keep moving. Well, that, and to actually shoot the
ball in the net and not over the net."
While the offense needed 30 minutes to get going, the defense, and
particularly three freshmen, were hot right off the bat. Princeton
started Tyler Fiorito in goal, Chad Wiedmaier on defense and John
Cunningham at longstick midfield in place of the slightly injured
Charlie Kolkin, and all three responded by playing well.
"It was a long wait to finally play a game," said Cunningham, who
had four caused turnovers and three ground balls. "Our class has
had much said about it, and it was good to finally see how we were
going to do."
Fiorito made four first half saves before giving way to Nikhil
Ashra for the second half in sticking to Tierney's plan for his two
goalies. The game marked the first time since 2005 that Alex Hewit
did not start in goal for Princeton and the first time since the
2004 NCAA Final Four game against Navy that Dan Cocoziello did not
start on defense, as the two All-Americas graduated.
Rob Engelke scored twice for Princeton.
Adam Jones had three goals and an assist for the Griffs.
"Adam Jones can play for any team in the country," said Tierney.
"We're certainly not good enough to go into a game against a team
like Canisius and think we're automatically going to win. This was
a tough one, but now that it's over, we can look ahead to next
week. It's a great rivalry, but they've had the better of it the
last few years. Certainly last year was a little embarrassing for
us."
Hopkins defeated Princeton 14-9 in the Face Off Classic a year ago
after sprinting away to leads of 1-0 in the first 10 seconds, 5-0
at the end of the first quarter, 8-0 before Princeton scored and
10-1 at the half.
