Ivy season starts right

With more than one player dancing around a hat, you could say that the men's lacrosse team had a bit of a fiesta Saturday.

Three players, freshman attack Tommy Davis and junior attacks Peter Trombino and Scott Sowanick turned in hat tricks as the Tigers (5-2 overall, 1-0 Ivy League) downed Yale (3-5, 0-3), 12-8, in the best display of offensive firepower Princeton has mustered so far this season.

"I think everyone played smart, which has been the biggest thing — everyone's been patient, we run our offense, [and] if it's not there we run it again and again and again until we get something," Trombino said.

If this game proves anything, it's that last weekend's late display of offensive strength was for real. For one thing, the statistics tell a pretty good story. The Tigers fired off 49 shots — a solid 27 of them on goal — to the Bulldogs' 36.

But what the ink doesn't reflect is the way the Tigers were, as Trombino said, able effectively to run and execute on offense. That made for quite a display in the first half.

Like they have in every game this season, the Tigers struck first with a goal by Sowanick about two minutes into regulation. The assist came from none other than sophomore defenseman Dan Cocoziello, who has recently added an occasional offensive shade to his brilliant defensive play.

After killing a man-down penalty, the Tigers got off a goal purely from their offense. Trombino, working around the net, found senior midfielder Jim O'Brien a few yards out in front of the cage. O'Brien quickly ripped the ball into the back of the cage with a fast overhand shot, giving the Tigers a 2-0 lead with 3:21 left in the first.

Princeton's freshmen took the lead from their upperclass counterparts early in the next quarter when freshman midfielder Josh Lesko fed Davis, who wound around the crease and cut inside for a score.

Princeton went man-up with 11:54 left in the half, and Davis struck again from in front of the goal thanks to a feed from junior attackman Tripp Shriner.

Though Yale snagged the next point, Sowanick, Davis and Trombino — the Tigers' three hat-trickers — would find the back of the net again before halftime. Princeton fired up the crowd with Davis' goal with just four seconds remaining as he wrapped around the crease, faked once, and scored off a feed from Sowanick.

Practice pays off

The halftime score, 7-1, largely tells the story of the Tigers' offensive performance against a strong Yale team. After last weekend's stellar second half against Binghamton, the team seemed ready for a breakout game, and it seems all it took was a week of practice for things to gel.

"We were up for this game — we were all prepared," Trombino said. "A lot of hard work went into this week, and a nice gameplan gave us a nice win."

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One of the key things that the team ironed out in practice was its faceoff woes. Because an offense can't be effective without the ball, head coach Bill Tierney and his staff devised several different personnel configurations designed to win more draws and to get the ball back if they were lost.

"We had so many different combinations out there," Tierney said. "We weren't worried about winning the draw, we were worried about trying to get the ball back. We were worried about them not scoring on fast breaks ... we got the job done."

Five different Tigers faced off on Saturday, and though the team went only 7-24, Princeton scooped up 30 ground balls and capitalized on many Yale turnovers.

Though the Tiger defense was indeed strong as always, the Tiger got a bit flat in the third quarter and let Yale score three goals, while the offense had only notched one themselves out of Trombino's stick at 9:45.

With eight seconds left in the third, Trombino again opened up a 4-1 Princeton run with an unassisted score 1-on-0 with the Yale goalkeeper. Yale responded, but Trombino created some solid offense to respond.

Recognizing that he had a bad angle with less than 10 minutes left in regulation, Trombino spied sophomore attackman Alex Haynie across the crease and fed him for a goal and the 11-5 lead.

"I thought I had the shot, and I looked up and saw him [across] the crease," Trombino said.

Haynie, in turn, fed Sowanick for an empty net goal only a few minutes later to notch a 12-5 lead, the largest of the day.

Yale went on to have the last three scores of the game as the Tigers substituted personnel and got a bit "disheveled" defensively, according to Tierney, who placed some of the blame for that run on his coaching.

The damage had already been done, though, and it was clear that if the Tigers were ever off track, they're back on now with their third win in a row.

Tierney said he was pleased with his team's play but still couldn't say he was fully confident in his squad.

"I would [be confident], except I'm so unsure of lacrosse in general. It's commonplace to have surprises, which makes everyone on edge," Tierney said.

Before the game, an unranked Penn team defeated No. 3 Cornell, an indicator of the parity across the Ivy League this year.

But if the Tigers can fire up their offensive fiesta even more, they'll be well prepared.