Doneger nets game-winner in OT

Their first win came by the narrowest of margins, in double overtime and only after several close saves, but the Tigers can finally breathe a sigh of relief.

Princeton's men's lacrosse team (1-5 overall, 1-1 Ivy League) defeated Penn (1-8, 0-4), 6-5, ending the Tigers' five-game slide to start the season and keeping hopes alive for an 11th consecutive Ivy League title.

"It's great to get that first win — we really feel a little bit relieved, and I feel like this team deserves that win," head coach Bill Tierney said.

While a win is a win — and this is Princeton's 16th straight against the Quakers — the Tigers experienced some of the same problems they've faced this season, particularly with shooting.

It didn't look that way in the beginning of play, though. Fifty seconds into regulation, Princeton's offense swept down the field, and sophomore attack Scott Sowanick scored.

"When we started out scoring a goal in the first fifty seconds, that's just so unlike us this year, I kind of took a deep breath and thought, 'OK, maybe this is the one [that we open up for a big win],' " Tierney said.

But at the end of the period, an old ghost reappeared. The Tigers gave up a score to Penn with 9.5 seconds remaining, shifting momentum to the Quakers as the second period began.

Penn added another score to take the lead, 2-1, but thanks largely to Princeton's freshman corps, it would be all the Quakers could manage that quarter.

Freshman goalie Alex Hewit, starting for the first time in his career, came up with two saves in the quarter, and the Tigers came roaring back. In the past four games, three different goalies have started for Princeton.

"I told the goalies on Monday [that] I'm just giving Alex a shot because . . . it's his turn, and he performed admirably. I thought he played great, especially late in the game," Tierney said.

Freshman midfielder Peter Striebel tallied the first score of his Princeton career on an assist from sophomore attack Tripp Shriner, tying it at two apiece.

As the Tigers began to take control of the possession game, sophomore midfielder Mike Gaudio found the back of the net for his eighth goal of the season. Finally, with just under a minute to play, sophomore attack Whitney Hayes scored the last goal of the half.

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Princeton came out in the second half looking open up a big lead and to cruise to an easy victory, but Penn wasn't finished yet. A low-to-high rising crank got past Hewit to bring the Quakers within one. Sophomore attack Peter Trombino followed suit with a goal of his own when Penn goalie Denis Cole let a save trickle back into the goal.

Toward the end of the third quarter, though, the Quakers scored again. It was a one-goal game, 5-4, heading into the last quarter.

Despite impressive short-stick defense from freshman midfielder Zach Goldberg, who singlehandedly stripped his man twice in the fourth quarter, Princeton let Penn score the tying goal with about seven minutes to play.

Hewitt saves the day

The Tiger offense had difficulty holding onto the ball in the last quarter, but when Goldberg wasn't holding the Quakers at bay, Hewit was there to come up with a big save. He had two in the fourth.

Penn held Princeton scoreless in the fourth quarter, with Cole stuffing the Tigers no less than five times as Princeton's shooting woes continued.

"You don't fix these things in a hurry, but you've got to fix them in a hurry, so it's a little bit of a dilemma," Tierney said.

Possession was again a problem for the Tigers in overtime, as Princeton narrowly avoided losing the game on a one-on-one Penn chance — one of four Quaker shots in the first overtime. Orange and Black players and fans bit their nails as Princeton dodged one bullet after another. With less than 20 seconds to play, Hewit came up with another clutch save to force a second overtime.

Finally, with about 2:30 to play in the second overtime, Tierney called a timeout to map out the win. The Tigers took the field, and at 1:43 Doneger scored off an assist from Trombino — the only two Princeton players on this year's squad who have ever scored in overtime — to win the game. For Doneger, the goal came after going scoreless for more than three whole games.

After the exciting double-overtime win, the Tigers seemed both restrained and relieved as they walked off the field.

"I'm hoping it does kind of springboard us into playing well in the next few games, and hope it does raise the kids confidence," Tierney said.

Princeton will essentially need to win all of its four remaining Ivy League games to capture its 11th straight title and advance to the NCAA tournament. The close win against the Quakers may have given the Tigers a sense of relief, but with the Ivy League as competitive as it is this year, they don't have much time to simply feel relieved.