Facing man-down, 'D' must step up

It's a common sight in men's lacrosse: an overzealous defenseman checks an attackman in the head, a flag comes out of the referee's pocket and both coaches begin scheming about how to take advantage of the forthcoming situation.

Well, not exactly both coaches. One sideline is desperately hoping to take advantage of the extra-man opportunity, while the other side is working just as hard to make sure that its man-down defense can stifle its opponent.

Penalties in lacrosse can come from a variety of fouls other than just a check to the helmet. A push to the opponent's back while he has possession of the ball and a slash are two other common penalties. Penalties usually last either 30 seconds or one minute, time during which the defensive team must remove a player from the field, resulting in a five-on-six situation and requiring man-down defense.

The penalty affects the game almost immediately once the flag is thrown. At this point, the offense continues to play, still hoping to score.

It's essentially a free opportunity for the team on offense. At best, they'll find the back of the net. At worst, they'll miss a shot or lose possession — and immediately get the ball back; once it hits the ground, play is stopped and the penalty begins, with the non-penalized team automatically retaining possession.

Not surprisingly, the situation changes the pace of the game for both the offense and the defense.

"If a guy hits somebody on the head and there's a flag down, he's got to keep playing. You don't want to get that guy to get crazy and go after it too hard," head coach Bill Tierney said.

"Most teams look at that as having a free shot, so a lot of times kids will take a not-well-thought-out shot. We just try to tell [our defensemen] to maintain the course, but if it looks like someone's really winding up, then go ahead and double him because he's not thinking about passing."

Real work begins

If the defense can keep the ball out of the goal until it hits the ground, play moves into an extra-man situation — and the real work begins for the penalized team.

The strategic problem facing a team playing down one man is an obvious one: they only have five guys to guard six players. Teams usually break into some form of a zone defense, but they use more than just their bodies to cover space on the field.

"You're trying to do your best to cover as many areas as you can with the sticks," Tierney said. "A lot of man-down is deception; you're covering people or appearing to cover people by having your sticks in the passing lanes."

There are a number of techniques branching out from this most basic philosophy. Some teams will play aggressive defense despite being short one man, hoping to force the other team out of sync or disrupt a designed play. Princeton uses a more conservative style, trying to force the offense into taking poor shots — either far away or from a low angle — that the goalie can easily save.

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"Ours tends to be a five-man rotation — five men trying to rotate covering six — which falls into our basic scheme anyway because we are always sliding and doubling," Tierney said.

Despite running a comparatively conservative scheme based around basic principles, Princeton's man-down defense still mixes it up once in a while.

"You'll see us once in a while shut off a guy. Other times we'll shut off a guy and then switch who we shut off to get them out of the rhythm of their plays," Tierney said. "Like a basketball team might go triangle-two or a box-and-one, we'll do that once in a while. If we think the other team is just great with their crease guy and they're going to force-feed it to him, then we'll stay on him."

If all goes well for the Tigers, the penalty will run out before their opponent can score. And when that sixth defenseman runs back onto the field, it's always both a relief and a boost to the defense.

"[Stopping an extra-man] is such a confidence builder," Tierney said. "Scoring a goal on man-up is a momentum thing, but stopping good teams on man-down is a confidence builder for your team 'cause there's no more overwhelming situation with the odds against you."

So far this season, the Tigers have received many confidence boosts from their man-down squad. A successful man-down defense will only give up goals between 20 to 25 percent of the times they are called onto the field. On the year, Princeton remarkably has allowed only one goal in the 10 man-down situations it has faced.

In a season marked by frustration, at least the Tigers have always been able to count on their man-down defense to get the job done.