Strong start and finish enough for men's lax to drop intrastate rival

Is No. 6 men's lacrosse a second-half team? It certainly looked that way after the Tigers won their second consecutive game while trailing at the midpoint. This time, the win came Saturday at home against No. 14 Rutgers (6-3 overall), 9-7.

The Scarlet Knights overcame an early 3-0 deficit to hold Princeton (5-2 overall, 1-0 Ivy League) scoreless in the second quarter, and took the lead on an unassisted goal by senior Tim White with eleven seconds left in the half. The goal gave Rutgers the 4-3 lead and the momentum going into the second half.

But less than a minute into the third quarter, sophomore midfielder Erik Kudla scored on an assist by senior attack Ryan Boyle to even things up, and Princeton never looked back, going on a five-goal tear that would eventually be enough for the win.

Princeton opened the scoring with seven minutes, 47 seconds remaining in the first quarter. Junior midfielder Mac Bryson took the initiative and slipped an unassisted goal by Rutgers' star goalie Greg Havalchak.

This was followed in quick succession by two goals from junior attack Jason Doneger, one a falling-over gem coming on a setup by freshman attack Whitney Hayes, and the other on a man-up advantage with the assist going to Boyle.

Yet this explosive outburst quickly faded, and the Tigers went on an 18-minute scoring drought for the remainder of the first quarter and the entirety of the second.

Rutgers quickly took advantage of this, scoring its first goal with 1:15 left in the first quarter. As the second quarter started, the Scarlet Knights began to look like the dominant team, and a goal from John Flanagan put them only down one.

"Rutgers has a very fast moving offense, moving around quickly and getting the ball to the backside of the goal," sophomore goalie Dave Law said. "We were expecting all of that, and we made a few mental mistakes."

At 9:24, a tripping call on junior midfielder Dave Willard gave Rutgers a man-up advantage, and they took the opportunity shortly thereafter to tie the score at 3-3. White's goal in the waning seconds gave them the lead, but it would be their last score for almost 20 minutes.

The Tigers went into halftime slightly demoralized. As they did last week, they looked to head coach Bill Tierney for a solution.

"I think we always try to make adjustments at halftime," junior defenseman Tim Sullivan said. "That's something Coach T[ierney] is really good at, making slight adjustments that give us an advantage."

Apparently the adjustments were the right ones to make, because Princeton emerged to play what was possibly its best quarter of lacrosse yet this year, with goals coming from Kudla, Doneger, and two from freshman attack Peter Trombino.

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Boyle, second all-time in assists at Princeton, had two of his four assists in the third quarter, including one to Trombino with 30 seconds left, on a move past a Rutgers defender which would be referred to on basketball courts as an "ankle-breaker." Boyle contributed an unassisted goal of his own 20 seconds into the fourth quarter, giving the Tigers an 8-4 lead.

With five minutes remaining in the game and a four-goal lead, it looked like it was all over, but the Scarlet Knights somehow found their second wind and made a late charge.

"We need to work on finding a way to put it away," Sullivan noted. "We tend to let teams get back in games, and as we gain experience, that can only improve."

Rutgers scored two quick goals to narrow its deficit to two. Princeton responded with a Boyle-assisted goal to senior midfielder Drew Casino at 2:43, and that would be enough.

An unassisted goal by the Knights' Jamie Lovejoy with two minutes remaining would be the last goal for Rutgers, and Princeton held on to emerge with a 9-7 victory.

Princeton returns to its Ivy League schedule tomorrow as it faces Penn at 4 p.m. at Class of 1952 Stadium.