Men's lacrosse falls to Syracuse in battle of nation's top teams

Is the Syracuse men's lacrosse team unbeatable? Obviously not, since it managed to lose at home to Johns Hopkins March 17.

But when Princeton (3-1) traveled to Syra-cuse, N.Y., Saturday to take on the Orangemen (4-1) in a rematch of last year's title game, the Tigers encountered a team on a mission. They met a Syracuse squad coming out to prove that it, not Princeton — which had leapt to No. 1 with a 10-5 win over Hofstra March 17 — was the best team in the country.

The Tigers had lost to the Orangemen in each of their last three meetings, the most recent being the 2000 NCAA Championship game in which Syracuse won the national title by a final score of 13-7.

In Saturday's game, Princeton was slow coming out of the starting gate as the Orangemen, backed by nearly 11,000 fans, began the game by mounting a 4-1 lead at the end of the first quarter.

Princeton would narrow Syracuse's advantage to three by the end of the second quarter, but would then witness another Orangeman outbreak, this time watching five unanswered goals get past senior goalkeeper Trevor Tierney. The tear gave Syracuse an 11-5 lead at the end of the third.

"The hard thing about [Syracuse] is that after they score, they are able to get on a roll and we were unable to get the ball back," sophomore attackman Sean Hartofolis said.

Down by six goals, the Tigers could have then played dead and admitted deafeat. Instead, Princeton began to mount a comeback. Senior midfielder Matt Bailer, freshman attack Ryan Boyle and junior attack B.J. Prager would each net a goal to narrow the lead to 11-8 with nine minutes, 40 seconds to go.

"We were just capitalizing on Syracuse's mistakes," Boyle said. "We were executing a lot better, playing a lot smarter, and we thought we could come back."

Less than a minute later, though, Syracuse's Michael Powell scored his third goal of the game to increase the lead to 12-8. The Orangemen would then cruise to a 14-8 victory.

In essence, the Tigers were shown a new level of play than had been displayed by their previous opponents.

Although Princeton's first three matches were against highly-ranked teams, none was as well-rounded as Syracuse. The Orangemen overwhelmed the Tigers, outshooting them 45-31, winning 14 of 24 faceoffs and claiming 37 of 62 groundballs.

"We can't blame any particular area," Boyle said. "We only scored eight goals and for our defense to give up 14 is unheard of."

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A week before their meeting with Syracuse, March 17, Princeton met Hofstra (1-4), a team looking to find its groove and win its first game of the season.

The Tigers would keep the Pride from finding either as Princeton would prevail with a 10-5 victory.

"We were pretty worried that we would look past Hofstra towards Syracuse," said sophomore attackman Sean Hartofolis.

Hofstra (1-4) never posed much of a threat, as Princeton was in the lead to stay after sophomore midfielder Owen Daly scored the first goal 4:02 into the first quarter.

The Tigers added three more before the end of the quarter — including freshman attackman Jason Doneger's first of his collegiate career — to make the score 4-1 going into the second.

Though Princeton's offensive onslaught slowed over the next three periods, the Tigers would easily muster enough scores for a comfortable win.

With many lacrosse soothsayers considering Syracuse and Princeton to be the best two teams in the country, last Saturday's game with the Orangemen could possibly forecast May's championship game. Princeton cannot and, in all likelihood, will not roll over and play dead for the rest of the season.

Although the Tigers were overwhelmed by a stronger Syracuse squad, Princeton fans can take solace in the fact that last season, after a blowout regular season loss against Virginia, the Tigers rebounded to beat the Cavaliers in the national tournament semifinals.

If the Syracuse loss serves as a wake-up call for Princeton, then they just might be able to do the same to the Orangemen this season.