Men’s lacrosse defeats Dartmouth 13—4 in crucial Ivy League win

Men’s lacrosse (6—6, 1—3 Ivy League) defeated Dartmouth College (2—9, 0—4 Ivy) 13—4 in Hanover, N.H. on Saturday, moving them one step closer to qualifying for the Ivy League playoffs. Junior attacker Michael Sowers, with three goals and three assists in this weekend’s game, moved into second place in the program’s all-time points ranking with 237 points, only 10 behind record holder Kevin Lowe ’94.

The victory over Dartmouth this weekend extended the Tigers’ win streak against the Big Green to six seasons and marks the third time in a row that Princeton has beaten Dartmouth in Hanover. The overall record between the two teams is now 58—9 in Princeton’s favor.

Dartmouth was first to score in the game at 11:16 but Princeton responded less than a minute later with a goal from senior attacker Emmet Cordrey, assisted by Sowers. The Big Green’s George Prince put one in to bring Dartmouth up 2—1 with seven minutes to go in the first quarter — the last time the team would lead for the rest of the game.

Princeton proceeded to drop three goals on Dartmouth over the next four minutes. Sophomore LSM Andrew Song scored at the six minute mark, making Saturday his fourth game in a row with a goal. Sowers assisted sophomore attacker Chris Brown with four and a half minutes to go in the quarter, giving the Tigers their first lead in the game at 3—2. Sowers got his own goal a minute and a half later, his 25th of the season. Dartmouth scored again with two minutes left and the quarter finished 4—3 in Princeton’s favor.

For the remainder of the game Princeton dominated Dartmouth. The Tigers added two goals in the second quarter — one from Sowers and the other from junior attacker Phillip Robertson. Strong defense from the team limited Dartmouth to seven shots, none of which saw the back of the net. At halftime the score stood at 6—3.

In the third quarter the Tigers allowed only one Dartmouth goal and added three more of their own with points from Robertson (assisted by freshman midfielder Beau Pederson), Cordrey (assist by Sowers), and sophomore middie Luke Crimmins. The fourth quarter saw Princeton keep a clean sheet as well as a hat trick from Brown and a goal and an assist from Sowers. The game finished 13—4 and put the team one step closer to achieving its postseason dreams.

Along with Sowers’ record-breaking performance, Brown extended his goal-scoring game streak to 25 in a row and sophomore goalie Eric Peters made 17 saves — a season high — at an 81 percent success rate.

Saturday’s game against Dartmouth was the first of the must-win final three regular season matches. The team will face Harvard this weekend in Princeton and head to Cornell next week for their final game of Ivy play.

Correction: This article previously stated that Michael Sowers is 12 points behind record holder Kevin Lowe. Sowers is 10 points behind Lowe, who had 247 points in his career.