Men's lacrosse still the best team in New Jersey, if not nation

Last year, after a depressing 14-8 loss against Syracuse in upstate New York, the Tigers returned to the armpit state to trounce Rutgers 14-5. It appears as though the Tigers may make that two game ritual a habit.

Last night, just three evenings after Princeton's tough 11-8 loss against the Orangemen, the Tigers quickly took the Scarlet Knights out of the game and went on to an easy 16-6 victory.

Mentally, a weak opponent after the tough Syracuse games might actually be what the Tigers need.

"I think that, more important than how it turned out, was the timing of the game," head coach Bill Tierney said. "This is the second year in a row in which we felt like we came off a tough, tough loss, sort of in two different ways. Last year, we got blown out at Syracuse, and this year we felt disappointed that we didn't get the win. So, having a game on Tuesday night really helps the kids get back together."

Similar to Saturday's loss to Syracuse, Princeton started off last night strong, scoring two goals in the first 19 seconds, both of which came on faceoff fast breaks — different from earlier outings in which the Tigers had a lot of difficulty on those situations.

"I think we counted nine times in the first three games where we had faceoff fast breaks and no goals, so tonight was a good change" head coach Bill Tierney said.

Junior midfielder Kyle Baugher lit up the scoreboard first when he took the faceoff straight towards the Rutgers net and dumped it in.

Baugher, whose health had some worried after last year's season ending injury, answered all medical questions when he took the second faceoff of the game to the Scarlet Knight goal and, instead of scoring himself, made a quick pass to junior attack Sean Hartofilis who increased the Tiger lead to 2-0 just 19 seconds into the game.

The pace did, of course, change — but just slightly. Princeton continued its tear through the Rutgers defense and got seven goals by three minutes, 24 seconds into the second quarter. Only after that seventh goal by junior attack Sean Hartofilis did the Scarlet Knights get on the scoreboard, beating the keeper for their first goal with 10:48 left in the half.

While the Tigers dominated all facets of the game, the team discovered more success than usual on faceoffs. Sophomore midfielder Drew Casino and junior midfielder Anthony Perna combined to win 15 of 26 faceoffs.

In the past, though, the two would sometimes lose the ball after winning the faceoff. Last night was different and five of the faceoffs Casino won led to fast break goals."Drew's a very good faceoff guy, but he's got to learn how to figure out the situation after that," Tierney said.

And he did that last night. Casino saw the field more clearly and did a solid job in getting the ball to some of the other players.

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Also impressive last night for the Tigers was the movement and the uncanny ability of the team to get the ball to open players around the goal.

Last season, it was then junior forward B.J. Prager who seemed to be the only person to get open around the goal. Last night, several different players, as well as Prager, were able to get free inside for the easy shot.

"Getting open like that starts with the middies making the picks outside and everyone making the cuts," Hartofilis, who finished with four goals and two assists, said. "The movement and the good passing help us get those open shots in front of the goal."

Indeed, last night's shooting percentage was, by far, the best on the season, making over 50 percent of the games 31 shots.

On the contrary, Rutgers had a very difficult time getting the ball into the net, taking just 20 shots with only 14 of those shots getting on goal against a tough Tiger defense.