No. 2 Princeton Nips No. 15 Harvard
from press release
PRINCETON, N.J. - First the familiar offensive
names for Princeton like Mark Kovler, Tommy Davis, the McBride
cousins and the rest got second-ranked Princeton a lead. Then the
two kids made it stand up.
Freshman goalie Tyler Fiorito saved a tough shot from Jason Duboe
with 38 seconds to play and freshman defender Chad Wiedmaier
stripped Dean Gibbons with five seconds to play to preserve
second-ranked Princeton's 10-9 win over No. 15 Harvard in front of
2,268 at the Class of 1952 Stadium.
The win improved Princeton to 10-1 overall, 3-0 in the Ivy League,
heading into next week's showdown in Ithaca against No. 3 Cornell,
8-2 overall and 4-0 in the league, in a game between the last two
remaining Ivy unbeatens. Harvard fell to 5-4 overall, 1-2 in the
league and has now lost to Cornell and Princeton by one-goal each
on consecutive Saturdays.
"Harvard's a very, very tough team," said Princeton coach Bill
Tierney. "We were very fortunate to win."
The win was Princeton's second 10-9 win in four days after the
Tigers defeated Penn in overtime by the same score in Philadelphia
Tuesday night. It was also Princeton's 19th straight win over the
Crimson, including back-to-back one-goal wins after a 9-8 win in
overtime in Cambridge a year ago
Bob Schneider, who scored the tying and winning goals as the
Tigers rallied to win the 2008 game against Harvard, was in the
stands for the 2009 game watching some former teammates build the
lead and then two players he never had a chance to play with make
their big plays.
The game was tied at halftime at 5-5, but Princeton appeared to
take control with leads of 8-5 at the end of three quarters and 9-6
when Kovler scored his second goal of the day with 8:41 to go. That
goal gave Kovler two goals and two assists on the day and made him
the 22nd player in program history to reach 100 career points.
Harvard wouldn't go away, though, scoring back-to-back goals from
Duboe and Kevin Vaughan to get within one with five minutes left.
Jack McBride scored his second goal with 1:58 to play to make it a
two-goal game again, but Harvard answered again, winning the
face-off and then getting within one on Gibbons' third of the day,
with 1:16 left.
Again Harvard would win the face-off, and it gave the Crimson a
chance to try to get the equalizer. The first chance came when
Duboe let loose with a low shot through traffic from 10 yards out
up top, but Fiorito was able to get his stick on it. The resulting
loose ball bounced to the sideline, where two Princeton players and
three Harvard players all dove fully extended and appeared to reach
the sideline at the exact same time.
Harvard was awarded possession and called timeout with 33 seconds
left. When play resumed, the Crimson got the ball to Gibbons, who
worked one-on-one against Wiedmaier to Fiorito's left.
"I was thinking back to his first goal," said Wiedmaier, who
finished with three caused turnovers. "He worked really hard to get
back to his left, and I played him for that."
Wiedmaier was able to knock the ball loose from Gibbons, and
Charlie Kolkin scooped it up. Kolkin then lifted the ball down the
field as time expired.
Princeton played most of the game without shortstick defensive
middie Brendan Reilly, who went down with a first-quarter ankle
injury. The Tigers, who have been without longstick midfielder John
Cunningham since he broke his jaw in mid-March, used Long Ellis as
both Kolkin's backup at longstick midfielder and as another
shortstick. Jimmy Davis went from being the third shortstick to
playing almost the entire game, and he had his first career point
on an assist on a fast break in the second quarter. Josh Lesko, the
other shortstick, had five ground balls and a caused turnover.
"If you're looking for an MVP of this game, it might be Jimmy
Davis," Tierney said of Tommy's brother. "He went from playing
three or four runs a game to basically the whole game. Long was
great too. He's a bit of an outside-the-box thinker, so you have to
keep that in mind, but he played a very good game."
Tommy Davis, who had four goals including the overtime game-winner
against Penn, had two goals and two assists against Harvard. Chris
McBride had three goals and an assist, while Rich Sgalardi also had
a goal.
Max Mottschwiller, who scored twice, was the only Harvard player
besides Gibbons with more than one.
Fiorito made 15 saves for Princeton. Joe Pike had 11 for Harvard,
who hosts Brown Wednesday night. Brown, ranked 11th, fell to Penn
7-6 in Providence this afternoon.
