Timing, teamwork on faceoffs

There's nothing more crucial than timing in the lacrosse faceoff, in which two men hunch closely over a small white ball, ready at the sound of the whistle to be the first to clamp his stick over the ball and draw it out for his team.

While timing is the first step in a successful faceoff, strategic placement of other midfielders is equally critical to the all-important faceoff.

Unlike, for example, football or basketball, in which possessions automatically alternate, lacrosse is one of the few sports in which a team can dominate possessions and hammer an opponent into the ground by controlling faceoffs.

"You've got to win those things — they're so important," head coach Bill Tierney said.

To that end, most college teams will employ one or a few players who are faceoff specialists, players recruited specifically to win faceoffs and then run off the field to allow a normal midfielder to substitute into the game.

For the Tigers this year, sophomore midfielder Al Berg has been the goto faceoff man. Berg has won 79 of his 172 attempts so far this season.

Berg, however, is not left alone at the faceoff "X" every game. Tierney and his staff employ several other faceoff men to try and mix it up against different opponents.

"Certain guys do better against other certain guys," Tierney said. "That's why you'll see us change in the middle of a game all of a sudden."

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For example, in a game two weeks ago against Harvard, Berg struggled to win control of the ball early on. So Tierney substituted another one of the Tigers' weapons, junior midfielder Mike Desantis, who went on to win seven of his 12 faceoffs.

Other personnel at Tierney's disposal include senior midfielder Hakim Thompson and freshman midfielder Greg Seaman, who have both seen time this year. Senior defender Ryan Schoenig, who took care of most of Princeton's faceoffs last year before moving to defense this year, has also still seen a few draws this season.

Teamwork is key

To overemphasize the role that individuals play in winning the faceoff, though, is misleading. Rarely will a faceoff man be able to not only get his stick down on the ball first but also rake it out to himself and pick up the ball.

Though the faceoff is a battle of strength and skill between the two men down on the ball, the two midfielders from each team who start out behind the lines on the wings are critical to faceoff success. When the whistle blows, these two will race in, alongside the opponents, to help out their faceoff man.

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Often, one man on one wing will be a normal short-stick midfielder, while the other will be a midfielder carrying a defensive stick — a "long-stick middie." In this way, the coach ensures they have their extra pole ready to go in case their faceoff doesn't go his team's way.

Additionally, the long-stick middie will be able to control better the opposing midfielder he matches up against in struggling for control of the ball.

"Usually what you do is you assume you're going to lose the draw for a fast break [by the other team]," Tierney explained. "The only way you're going to lose the draw for a fast break is by the other player pulling it out to his left — it's very hard to get a fast break going to the right because you have to get through the other guy's body."

So, a coach will typically position his long-stick midfielder to the left of the opponent facing off in order to cut off the fast break.

However, there are many variations on this approach. In particular, with the Tigers only winning 47.6 percent of their faceoffs, Princeton has looked for ways to try and control the ball better off the whistle.

One way in which the Tigers have done this is to place two long-stick midfielder on the wings. Since teams are only allowed four long-sticks on the field at a time, one midfielder must then carry a short stick until after possession is called, when he can then switch places with the defenseman.

Sometimes, sophomore defenseman Dan Cocoziello and junior defenseman John Bennett will play from the wings as a way to help Princeton win more faceoffs.

"We think that we're very athletic when we bring Danny Cocoziello up on the wings," Tierney said. "Then we've got two poles [and are] at an advantage to getting the ball out and fighting for it a little bit better."

Hedging their bets

Sometimes, against the most dominant faceoff opponents, the Tigers will even play with a third pole facing off, which essentially gives the other team the ball but ensures that the midfielders can control their opponents as soon as the other team gains possession.

Though it may be harder to start a fast break with two long-stick midfielders should the Tigers win possession, Tierney pointed out that if his team is winning faceoffs in a particular game, he won't be using both poles anyways.

Additionally, there are plays designed to beat that problem. For example, one play devised by Tony Seaman, head coach of Towson's men's lacrosse team, involves sending the short-stick back on defense straight up the middle of the field as soon as his team gets possession to catch a pass from the midfielder and initiate a fast break.

The Tigers, though they haven't been strong facing off, haven't been disastrously week at the faceoff X either, particularly since the introduction of these different strategies. And even when one player's timing might be off, if the team play is right on, the Tigers are in good shape.