Trombino effort earns milestones, Tiger win

In the week leading up to Saturday's game between Dartmouth and the No. 7 men's lacrosse team, the Big Green lost one-goal contests to both No. 8 Albany and No. 3 Virginia.

Princeton would not let its matchup get that close.

Powered by senior attack Peter Trombino's three goals and a strong all-around defensive effort, the Tigers put away Dartmouth 13-6 at Class of 1952 Stadium. Trombino's three goals and two assists made him the first Princeton player ever to have at least 20 goals and 10 assists in each of his four seasons. He is the fourth player to have 90 goals and 50 assists in his career.

The Tigers had their way with a porous Dartmouth defense, with senior midfielder Scott Sowanick, sophomore attack Tommy Davis and junior attack Alex Haynie tallying two goals each. Sophomore midfielder Mark Kovler, senior midfielder Whitney Hayes, senior midfielder Derek Sudan and sophomore midfielder Brendan Reilly each tallied a single goal.

Just as important as the scoring output was the team's defensive strength in the absence of senior defense Zach Jungers, who has a minor but persistent knee injury. Dartmouth entered the game having averaged nine goals per game for the season and 12 goals over its previous three games.

"Great effort from [senior defense] Danny Cocoziello, and [sophomores] Chris Peyser and Charlie Kolkin," head coach Bill Tierney said. "It was a team effort defensively, and they had three great players. Especially without Zach Jungers, I thought our defense played great."

Junior goalie Alex Hewit tallied six saves on the afternoon.

Princeton opened up the scoring three minutes, 52 seconds into the game when a wide-open Kovler wound up and struck low from 12 yards out. Kovler found Haynie with 3:05 left in the first quarter, and Haynie doubled the Tigers' lead from just outside the crease.

Davis notched his first of the game with 1:29 left in the frame, catching a tough pass and firing with his offhand through a double team to stretch the lead to three. Dartmouth would get one back, however, before the first buzzer sounded.

After a nice pointblank save by Hewit, Sudan notched his second goal of the season, running from behind the net while taking hits the whole way. After a Dartmouth goal, Sowanick found Trombino about ten yards out, who fired low-to-low past the Big Green keeper to stretch the lead to three.

Davis made it 6-2 with 29 seconds remaining in the half, picking up a loose ball in front of the cage and burying it from right outside the crease. Princeton out-shot Dartmouth 24-9 for the first half, including 14-5 on goal.

Though they were dominant in the first half, the first six minutes of the second half sealed the win for the Tigers. Just under two minutes in, Trombino received a feed inside from Sowanick, tiptoed around the crease and faked a shot before burying the ball past the left post.

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Haynie followed up three minutes later, batting in a feed from Davis in lots of traffic. Princeton won the ensuing face-off, and in transition Haynie broke his defender's ankles, drew another defender and dished the ball to a wide-open Reilly, who finished coolly for a 9-2 advantage. Hayes got his third goal in the last two games with 4:09 left in the third quarter, converting a Davis pass from close range.

"After [the first quarter], we really stepped it up," Tierney said. "The beginning of the second half was the key to the game. Getting those two or three in a row, once you get up 10-2 or 10-3, then it's comfortable."

Sowanick said that his coach's halftime speech focused the team's effort.

"At the beginning of the game, things weren't really clicking," he said, "but we were able to reassemble at halftime and really push forward."

The final frame first saw sophomore midfielder Rich Sgalardi draw three defenders to open up Trombino on the crease for his third goal of the game, and later both Kovler and Trombino set up Sowanick about 12 yards out for his two goals. The latter was Trombino's 10th assist of the year, which drew recognition over the loudspeaker for his aforementioned accomplishments.

Trombino was given the ball from that assist, which he nonchalantly tossed to the sideline before getting right back in the game.

Overall, Tierney was pleased to see a strong showing on both ends of the pitch against a team that "should've beaten Virginia" before narrowly falling to another top-10 opponent.

"We're thrilled to put up 13, and we're thrilled to hold them to six," the six-time national champion coach said. "That was a really good offensive team, and their goalie has been good all year long. I'm just proud of the team."