Young squad looks sharp in season-opener

The forecast was for rain, yet the sky was cloudless all afternoon. Apparently the weathermen knew that Princeton's men's lacrosse team had a game on Saturday and would be raining shots, instead.

The Tigers (1-0 overall, 0-0 Ivy League) made short work of Canisius (0-1) in their season opener, ripping past the Golden Griffins in a 16-6 win that made for an impressive start to the 2006 season.

"[It's] better than being 0-1 ... it was a good opener for us," head coach Bill Tierney said.

Everything that went wrong last season, especially the '05 team's shooting woes, went right for the Tigers. Princeton converted 16 of 49 shots, a rate of nearly a third.

The first goal of the season came out of the stick of junior midfielder Scott Sowanick, who caught a feed from fellow junior midfielder Whitney Hayes a few yards off the goal and stuck it offside high only 33 seconds into regulation.

Sowanick would later feed senior midfielder Jim O'Brien for the second goal of the game but not before the Tigers' defense was put to the test. Senior Zach Jungers and junior Ryan Schoenig assisted sophomore Dan Cocoziello at defense, and the trio turned Griffin players back at every dodge in a fine display of man-to-man defense.

Combined with sliding that looked a bit rusty but nevertheless effective, the Tiger defense prevented Canisius from scoring until less than two minutes were left in the half.

Princeton's goalscorers, though, got younger and younger as sophomores and then freshmen began to steal the show.

Sophomore attack Alex Haynie again took advantage of Canisius with an offside shot to put Princeton up 3-0 with 2:11 remaining in the first quarter.

Not to be outdone by an '08, freshman midfielder Mark Kovler began his class' domination with an unassisted goal to chalk up a 5-1 lead.

Though the Tigers controlled the first half and took a 7-1 lead into the locker room, the second half was far more impressive — and important for the team's play this season.

"We've been talking all preseason about not being selfish," Tierney said, "and I thought we made some selfish plays early that cost us some goals, but we're also talking about pushing the ball a little bit more and taking some more chances offensively, and you're going to get those kinds of mistakes when you do that."

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Though the Tiger upperclassmen didn't seem to have any problem running Princeton's new faster-paced offense, this year's freshman class broke out in the second half and showed that they too came ready to play.

Freshmen live up to hype

With about seven minutes remaining in the third quarter, freshman midfielder Josh Lesko — who had been key all game in scooping up draws from face-offs, — flew down the right wing and nailed the top shelf with absolutely no angle in a dramatic display of skill.

Lesko's goal started a downpour of freshman scores. Five minutes later, freshman attack Tommy Davis watched his shot ricochet off the pipe, only to get a feed from Haynie seconds later and convert it into a 10-3 lead.

After a goal by standout sophomore midfielder Zach Goldberg, usually a defensive specialist, Kovler struck again to open the fourth quarter and with it a nine-point gap, 12-3.

"It's good that all the older guys have been really good in getting us into [the offense]," Kovler said.

Davis added that the upperclassmen had been "great" in helping himself and the other freshmen learn the Tiger offense. The freshmen look primed to be just as great as their mentors.

"[The freshmen] just give us that little bit extra — they don't seem to feel pressure," Tierney said. "Lesko wants to be out there 60 minutes a game and not selfishly ... that's how he is. Tommy Davis is cool as a cucumber, and Kovler can really shoot the ball ... we're pretty happy with this group of freshmen."

Remarkably, though, Davis would go on to score twice again, including a goal with 7.7 seconds left. This tear gave Davis the first hat trick accomplished by a Princeton rookie in the season opener in a long time.

In fact, the last time it happened was way back in 1995, and it was a feat pulled off by none other than one of the most sacred names in Princeton lacrosse history: Jesse Hubbard '98.

Put it all together, and you've got a solid start for the Tigers, who will carry some experience and momentum when they face Johns Hopkins in Baltimore next weekend.

"I think it's always good to get a win under your belt [going into] Hopkins," Trombino said. "I think it's just going to be about becoming a cohesive unit, knowing how to play with each other, and I think it'll be fine – we're shooting well, better than we have this early in the season in the past."

Next weekend could be wet, too.