Men’s lacrosse dominates Stony Brook, now seeks first road win against Siena

This past weekend, the men’s lacrosse team (4–5 overall, 0–3 Ivy League) hosted Stony Brook (4–7) in its second to last non-conference game of the season. Princeton took an early lead on a goal from sophomore attack Michael Sowers just over a minute into the game. The Tigers would never look back from this and built a 10–3 lead by halftime.

Princeton would go on to win 16–8 behind solid performances from Sowers, senior midfielder Austin Sims, and freshman midfielder Chris Brown Sowers had nine points on the day — four goals, five assists — and Brown and Sims each had five points with four goals and an assist. Sowers and Brown both continued their career streaks of two points per game and a goal per game, respectively. Both are also the only two current players to have started every game of their careers at Princeton.

A recent breakout star for the Tigers has been first-year midfielder Luke Crimmins. Crimmins scored his first career goal against Brown last week and scored another two goals last weekend against Stony Brook. Before these games, Crimmins had only played once for Princeton.

Crimmins is part of a talented first-year class that includes longstick midfielder Andrew Song, who leads the team in caused turnovers with 11, and defender George Baughan, who is second in that category. Song is also the only longstick to have scored this year.

Coming into the matchup versus Stony Brook, the Tigers were looking to perfect their game before going into the rest of their Ivy League schedule. Princeton was able to do the little things right against the Seawolves like clearing, winning face-offs, and limiting turnovers. Entering the game, the Tigers were 66th of 69 teams in Division I in clearing, but went 14 for 14 on Saturday. In addition, having struggled from the face-off X all season, senior midfielder Sam Bonafede turned it around and went 18 of 27 and had 13 ground balls, a game high for Princeton this season.

The Tigers will have another chance to prepare for the end of the season Tuesday as they travel to Loudonville, N.Y., to take on Siena for the first time ever. Princeton will be looking for its first road win of the season, and it could not come at a better time before the final three Ivy League games of the season against Dartmouth, Harvard, and Cornell. For the Tigers to have a chance at the Ivy League tournament — which only takes the top four teams — they will have to win all three remaining league games and get some help, as they currently sit tied for last at 0–3 with Dartmouth. Currently, both Cornell and Harvard are in the top four.

As the old adage goes, “if you want to be the best, you’ve got to beat the best.” Tuesday’s game will not be available to watch online, but listeners can tune in live on TuneIn.com digital radio.