New No. 2 Princeton Nearly Upended by Penn
from press release
Giants Stadium, Syracuse, the No. 2 national ranking, Harvard and Cornell were a million miles away for the Princeton men's lacrosse team Tuesday night. Instead, a two-win team that wouldn't go away was threatening to turn the Tiger season in a different, totally unwanted direction.
Princeton went from playing in front of the largest regular season crowd for a college lacrosse-only event to playing in front of 65,000 empty seats and almost let its season slip away a bit. Almost.
Tommy Davis scored four goals, including the game-winner 1:30 into overtime, as second-ranked Princeton escaped with a 10-9 win over Penn at Franklin Field. Princeton improved to 9-1 overall and 2-0 in the Ivy League, while Penn fell to 2-7, 1-4.
Princeton defeated Penn for the 20th straight time. The Tigers lead the all-time series 61-16.
It was a far cry from Saturday, when Princeton never trailed then-No. 2 Syracuse in a 12-8 win in the Big City Classic, an event that drew 22,308 to Giants Stadium, home to two NFL teams. This time, Princeton was playing in an ancient stadium that long ago was home to another NFL team, in front of a crowd announced as 550 on a chilly night.
In addition, Princeton could look ahead to its next two games, against No. 15 Harvard and No. 3 Cornell. On top of that, the Tigers came out against Penn and scored on their first shot, a Mark Kovler rocket that came two minutes in and made it seem like Princeton would be on its way to an easy night.
Except then a funny thing happened: Princeton did not get another shot for the first quarter. By the time the first 15 minutes were over, Penn had outshot Princeton 12-1 and taken a 3-1 lead, an advantage that grew to 5-2 in the second quarter and setlted in at 6-4 at the half. Even after Princeton scored an early goal in the third, Penn answered, making it 7-5 with 11:49 left in the quarter.
To that point, Penn had used a near-perfect formula of winning almost every face-off and dominating possession for about 90% of the time. The Quakers were content to take the ball behind the goal and wait for Princeton to chase; when the Tigers did, the Quakers tried to exploit. Penn was called for five stalling warnings in the first half alone, but the results spoke for themselves.
Then Princeton erupted. The Tigers scored three times in a 1:05 span to take an 8-7 lead as Rich Sgalardi, Jack McBride and Davis all put the ball in the net and made it seem like the dam was about to burst.
And just like that, neither team would score for more than 17 minutes, though both would have numerous chances. In all, the teams would play the final 27:21 with neither ever ahead by more than one goal, and it would be tense all the way.
Penn tied it on a Drew Collins goal, his third of the game, with 7:12 to go, but Davis scored on a great feed from Rich Sgalardi out of a timeout with 4:13 left. Penn would get the equalizer on Al Kohart's goal with just 59 seconds to go, and Justin Lynch would win his 15th face-off of the night to follow. The Quakers got off two shots in the final 59 seconds, but neither was on goal.
A loose ball push on the overtime face-off gave possession to Princeton, and the Tigers brought it in the box and called timeout. Princeton's only shot of the overtime came when McBride started to make a run in front and then fed the cutting Davis, who scored from in close to end it.
Princeton managed just 23 shots in the game, while Penn took 33. Sgalardi had two goals and three assists, while McBride scored twice.The game featured just 33 combined ground balls, as Penn took huge chunks off the clock standing behind the net.
