No. 1 Blue Jays top Princeton

On a bitterly cold season-opening day, before a record-breaking crowd at Class of 1952 Stadium, men's lacrosse (0-1 overall) came out slow on both defense and offense and was never able to recover against No. 1 Johns Hopkins (1-0) on Saturday.

In a duel between two of the most dominant teams in college lacrosse, hundreds of fans were turned away at the gates as 6,325 braved the breezy early March weather for a game of sometimes sloppy, sometimes brilliant lacrosse.

Three straight goals late in the fourth quarter gave Princeton — ranked No. 3 to open the season — some hope, but time expired with the Blue Jays holding onto a 9-6 lead.

Johns Hopkins' star midfielder, Kyle Harrison, controlled the field all day long and made his presence known from the opening whistle, scoring the Jays' first goal only 39 seconds into the game on a rocket past goalie Dave Law.

That score kicked off a 6-0 run for Hopkins, one which had the Princeton defense looking disoriented and confused for much of the first half. Even senior defenseman Oliver Barry, who head coach Bill Tierney has called the leader of the team's defense, threw passes off-target and found himself picked off on clears. The Blue Jays spent most of the first quarter on the Tiger side of the field and had a 4-0 lead heading into the second quarter.

For a change of pace, Tierney brought in senior Matt Larkin to the goal after Law went the entire first period without a save. With Hopkins still dominating possession, Larkin was under fire right away but was able to perform slightly better than Law. Larkin remained between the pipes for the rest game and finished with five saves.

"We were a little on our heels," Tierney said in discussing his team's first half play. "[We] didn't get the ball much, and, when we did, we were a little tight."

Finally, sophomore attack Scott Sowanick decided that enough was enough and singlehandedly jumpstarted the Princeton offense. With 6:52 on the clock, he took the ball from behind the net, juked his only defender and nailed an unassisted goal into the corner of the net from the edge of the crease.

With the proverbial seal broken, Princeton scored again less than a minute later after a rare face-off win. Sowanick aimed a bounce-shot through the goalie's legs off an assist from sophomore attack Peter Trombino for the score.

With those two goals in quick succession, the Tigers' hopes began to climb — only to be dashed by what was undoubtedly the worst play of the game. Following a great save by Larkin in a man-down situation, sophomore defenseman John Bennett picked up a loose ball in front of the goal from the middle of a crowd and then tried to pass it back to Larkin for the clear. Two Hopkins players blocked Larkin, however, and he lost track of the ball, leading to an own-goal and giving the Blue Jays a 7-2 lead.

Asked how to prevent such mistakes in the future, Tierney credited Princeton's troubles to the intensity of the Hopkins attack, saying that the only way to stop them from happening again would be to "not play Hopkins."

Sowanick contributed another goal with less than a minute remaining in the half, giving him a hat trick and putting the score at 7-3 for halftime.

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The third quarter saw some slow-moving, back-and-forth action, as Hopkins continued to pressure the Princeton defense. Larkin managed two more saves but allowed two goals on nine shots.

As the fourth quarter began, things looked grim for the Orange and Black. Leading 9-3, Hopkins won yet another face-off, a trend throughout the game — the Jays took 12 of 19.

The motivation of an impending loss, however, revived the Princeton offense. On a man-up opportunity, at 10:09 left in the game, senior attack Jason Doneger shot a rocket into the goal from the edge of the crease on an assist from sophomore middie Whitney Hayes. Doneger, the Tigers' leading scorer a year ago, was otherwise uncharacteristically quiet for the day.

The score kicked off a 3-0 run for Princeton with goals by Sowanick and Hayes, as the defense held Hopkins scoreless for the fourth quarter. It would be too little, too late, however, and the Tigers would come up short.

Despite the loss, Tierney spoke positively of the play of most of the team, critical only of some of his defensemen.

"The kids really stepped up, and I give them credit for that, but [Hopkins] makes you do some things you don't want to do," he said. "I'm a little disappointed in our senior defensemen. We didn't get a great game today out of those guys, and that's trouble."

Though this year's three-goal defeat was far closer than the Tigers' nine-goal loss to the Blue Jays last year at a similar juncture in the season, the sting of losing their first game was still clearly felt by many of the players.

"We're definitely going to have a chip on our shoulder," said Sowanick, who ended up with a career-high four goals. "We're going to come out and work really hard this Monday in practice."