Script Flipped: Princeton Disappoints Brown
by Justin Feil | Special to Lacrosse Magazine Online
PRINCETON, N.J. - The Princeton men's lacrosse
team left Rhode Island last year devastated after their Ivy and
NCAA Tournament chances were dashed by a 6-5 loss to Brown.
Tommy Davis scored two goals and had one assist as the
fourth-ranked Tigers turned the tables in a big way with an 11-7
win before 2,132 at home over the No. 10 Bears on Saturday.
"It's a completely different feeling," Davis said. "Last year was
the worst of the worst."
Princeton, which improved to 12-2 overall, and Cornell share the
Ivy League championship with 5-1 conference records. It is the
Tigers' first Ivy title since 2006.
"This is the perfect way to go out of the regular season and go to
the postseason where we really haven't been too often lately," said
Davis, one of nine seniors honored before Saturday's game.
Cornell earns the Ivy's automatic bid to the NCAAs by virtue of its
10-7 win over Princeton two weeks ago. The Tigers are in good
position for a home game as an at-large bid when selections are
announced Sunday.
But getting any tournament game is big after last year's
disappointing finish with losses to Dartmouth and Brown.
"Last year, we had it in our hands and we lost those last two
games," said Princeton head coach Bill Tierney. "From that point on
- when we went on our (international) trip and everything else - it
was all about the Ivy championship.
"It's a launching pad. It's an achievement in and of itself. These
kids won't go home empty-handed, and now it launches you into the
next phase."
The Bears, too, will be watching the selection show as well after
falling to 4-2 in Ivy play. They beat Cornell last week, 11-9, but
couldn't overcome a slow start Saturday in suffering their first
road loss of the season.
"We feel like we have a good resume," said Brown head coach Lars
Tiffany, whose team is 12-3 overall. "It's out of our
control now. We had our chance today and Princeton took care of
us."
Princeton is 5-0 this season against teams that they lost to last
season. The loss at Brown may have been the most devastating of the
defeats they avenged.
"This game and the Dartmouth game are where we blew it," Davis
said. "Those guys took our season from us. We used that as
motivation, and this game especially because if we won last year we
still would have got in (the NCAA Tournament)."
After a scoreless first quarter for both teams Saturday, the Tigers
took a 7-0 lead into halftime when its offense came to life while
the Bears couldn't get on track. Princeton scored more times
against Brown and All-America goalie Jordan Burke in 25 minutes
than they had in all of last year's season finale.
At the other end, Princeton freshman Tyler Fiorito had to make just
one first-half save. Brown twice hit posts, a microcosm of their
accuracy troubles. They fired 18 straight shots that weren't on
goal in one stretch.
"It might have been our worst half of finishing and executing of
the year," Tiffany said. "Certainly the opponent makes you do some
of that. That was the frustrating part."
For the game, the Bears had 16 shots on goal out of 49 attempted.
It was the second straight week in which Princeton's defense has
held an opponent scoreless in the first half.
"Both goalies, I think, had a huge affect on the other team's
shooting, so there were a lot of pipes and a lot of misses,"
Tierney said. "That's a credit to both goalies, and the respect
both teams had for both goalies."
Fiorito and Burke finished with nine saves apiece, though Fiorito
didn't have to stop a shot in the second quarter during Princeton's
decisive run.
Greg Seaman put the Tigers on the board 51 seconds into the second
quarter on a feed from Davis. It was just Seaman's fourth goal of
the season. Davis scored 54 seconds later for a 2-0 Tigers edge.
Josh Lesko's transition goal off Brown's first hit pipe gave the
Tigers a 3-0 lead with 12:05 left.
Jack McBride followed with back-to-back goals and Paul Barnes
picked up the face-off and scored just seven seconds after
McBride's second score for a 6-0 edge. After Brown hit its
second post, Mark Kovler gave the Tigers a 7-0 bulge.
"Princeton exploded," Tiffany said. "I give them all the credit.
They started putting the plays together and they exposed some
things we do defensively."
Said Davis: "Things kind of opened up for us. We just got the right
looks and we took advantage of the opportunities we got."
Thomas Muldoon scored two goals as the Bears trimmed their deficit
to 9-4 by the end of the third quarter. Muldoon's third goal of the
game 4:32 into the fourth quarter gave the Brown hope at 9-5, but
the Tigers defense never allowed them any closer as the teams
traded goals the rest of the way.
Reade Seligmann had a game-high three assists and Andrew Feinberg
had two goals for the Bears.
Princeton's Seaman tied a career-high with two goals. Rich Sgalardi
had two assists for the Tigers. Chris Peyser had four caused
turnovers for the Tigers.
