The Rutgers men's lacrosse team used a defensive plan in Saturday's game at the class of 1952 Stadium designed to interrupt the opponent's offensive system, forcing it to rely on individuals for scoring — an effective plan against a team of weak talent.
But it was not effective against a host Princeton team featuring overwhelming star power and depth.
Winning the Meistrell Cup — which goes to the winner in this intrastate rivalry — for the 11th straight year, the Tigers (3-1) ripped through the Scarlet Knight defense en route to a 15-5 trouncing.
Over the previous two games and the last week of practice, Princeton had been working on slowing its offense to create better shooting opportunities. Rutgers (1-4) came out from the opening face-off intent on denying this strategy. Instead of allowing the Tigers to slowly break down its defense, Rutgers applied constant pressure.
One-on-one
Princeton players could not be patient in the face of harrying Scarlet Knight defenders, but found space to beat their men one-on-one. One-on-one was just the game for senior All-American midfielder Josh Sims, who dominated Rutgers with five goals, four of them unassisted. He simply shrugged aside advancing Scarlet Knight defenders, sending blistering shots toward the goal both left-handed and right-handed.
"He really does [overpower people]," head coach Bill Tierney said. "When he feels like it, it's something beautiful to watch."
For the first six minutes, 50 seconds of the game, Rutgers managed to keep the Tigers off the scoreboard. After Sims scored the Tigers' first goal, however, Princeton never let up. The Tigers scored seven more goals in the half to take an 8-2 lead. Although Princeton outscored the Scarlet Knights 4-0 in the second quarter, the score belied the nature of the game at that point. It wasn't that close.
The Tigers missed a number of very good scoring opportunities, including several shots by sophomore attackman B.J. Prager, who found open looks off precise feeds from junior attackman Matt Striebel. The Rutgers offense, on the other hand, was almost nonexistent.
The menacing Scarlet Knight offense, featuring All-American Keith Cromwell, managed just three shots in the second quarter. The young Tiger defense played its best game of the year, keeping the ball out of the sticks of Rutgers' best scorers. Sophomore defenseman Scott Farrell took the responsibility of covering Cromwell and limited him to two assists and one goal off a fluke turnover.
"[Our defense] can just be very aggressive and put some pressure on teams," Sims said. "When they do and they do it well, it's really hard for any offense to get good shots."
Same story
The second half was almost a replica of the first. Sims scored the Tigers' first goal 48 seconds into the third quarter. An errant Rutgers pass gave Sims the ball in Princeton's box on a restart, whereupon he coolly ran by the Scarlet Knights' attackmen and dodged a pair of midfielders to reach the Rutgers end. Once within firing range, the senior stopped between two defenders to unleash a bounce shot that slipped past the Rutgers goalkeeper.
A number of different Tigers carried the scoring load for the rest of the game, as nine Princeton players scored during the contest. Rutgers' defensive strategy gave Princeton's talented freshmen a chance to showcase their offensive skills despite their inexperience with the Princeton system. Four freshmen combined for six of the Tigers' goals.
"They made us actually have to play a little more of an individual game and let people dodge," Sims said. "It's fine if we can do it. It's nice to see some other guys step up and play that way."
NOTE: Junior midfielder Dan Clark suffered a season-threatening shoulder sprain early in the game.
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