Princeton Offense Too Much for Hopkins
by Gary Lambrecht | Special to Lacrosse Magazine Online
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Scott MacKenzie celebrates his overtime goal that lifted Princeton past Johns Hopkins 11-10. © John Strohsacker/LaxPhotos.com |
BALTIMORE - When Princeton senior midfielder
Scott MacKenzie drifted into an open space on the right wing, he
watched his teammate draw a double team, and MacKenzie knew what to
expect. Sure enough, junior attackman Jack McBride sent a crisp,
cross-field pass through the heart of the scrambling, Johns Hopkins
defense, leaving MacKenzie to finish off the Blue Jays in
overtime.
MacKenzie delivered. Fifty-nine seconds into the extra period at
M&T Bank Stadium, his high-to-low, 10-yard shot slipped past
Hopkins senior goalie Michael Gvozden, giving No. 7 Princeton an
11-10 victory over fifth-ranked Hopkins before 19,742 in the Konica
Minolta Face-Off Classic.
It marked MacKenzie’s only goal of the day, but it
punctuated a problem the Tigers (2-0) and their offense presented
to Hopkins for much of the afternoon, while handing the Blue Jays
(3-1) their first loss.
Under first-year coach Chris Bates, Princeton has revamped its
offensive philosophy. Instead of milking the clock with lots of
motion, cutting and passing, as they had done successfully for two
decades under Bill Tierney, the Tigers are now attacking out of
their settled offense by relying on two-man games, relentless picks
and inevitable, open shots that result from the opposing defense
rotating out of position.
“It’s a very difficult, exotic offense,” said
Hopkins coach Dave Pietramala, whose overtime record at Hopkins
fell to 16-7. “It’s like [Princeton is] running three,
two-man games. They try to confuse you and force you to jump in and
out of a defense. They’re slick off the ball. They’re
unselfish. In the end, we broke down a couple too many times on the
backside. We dug ourselves a little bit too much of a
hole.”
“We knew what we were going to do [after winning the opening
faceoff in OT], and it fell right,” MacKenzie said.
“Jack got the double team and moved the ball. Our offense is
a lot about off-ball movement.”
A week after opening its season with a 17-14 victory over Hofstra,
the Tigers did plenty of other things right.
They got a game-high four goals from freshman midfielder Jeff
Frocarro, who hurt Hopkins with open shots on the wing and followed
up a great save by Gvozden (10 saves) by raking in a goal to give
Princeton an 8-6 lead with six minutes left in the third quarter.
They got a hat trick from hard-dodging Jack McBride in the first
half. Senior attackman Rob Engelke had three of Princeton’s
eight assists.
The Tigers also held Hopkins scoreless for a 25-minute stretch
spanning the first and third quarters, while taking a 7-4 lead.
With sophomore long-stick midfielder Jonathan Meyer leading the
way, Princeton held Hopkins star midfielder Michael Kimmel without
a goal for nearly 60 minutes, while junior defenseman Long Ellis
put the champs on Hopkins senior attackman Steven Boyle (one goal,
one assist).
To his credit, Kimmel was there when the Blue Jays needed him at
the end of a wild, sloppy sequence in regulation. Each team
committed two turnovers in the final 90 seconds. Each turned it
over around midfield in the last 30 seconds. But Kimmel picked up
the last loose ball, sprinted down the middle and beat goalie Tyler
Fiorito (eight saves) with 17 seconds to go to tie the game at
10-10.
On a day when Hopkins senior attackman Chris Boland returned from
a three-game suspension to score two goals, and on a day when
Gvozden recorded a kick save at the end of regulation to keep the
Blue Jays alive, the Blue Jays made just enough mistakes to come up
short.
“I thought we were able to neutralize their best
players,” Bates said. “And we preach pace and patience
on offense. I see light bulbs going on.”
