Third-quarter run seals win

Freshman attack Jack McBride was the star performer in Casey’s bad dreams, as the freshman phenom had six goals on six shots in the men’s lacrosse team’s convincing 15-4 win over Penn (5-4 overall, 3-2 Ivy League).

The first Princeton (5-4, 2-0) goal of the game actually came from McBride’s cousin. Freshman attack Chris McBride responded to Garvey Heiderman’s leadoff goal when he left a Penn defender trailing in his wake and rolled around the crease to shoot and tie the score at one. From that point onward, however, it was all Jack.

McBride’s first goal came with four minutes, 24 seconds to go in the first quarter, when he beat Casey on a quick-stick, side-high bounce shot. Three-and-a-half minutes later, McBride dodged Penn defenseman Brett Hughes and proceeded to roll the crease to convert on the doorstep while Hughes lay on the turf, dumbfounded. With 21 seconds left in the first quarter, sophomore attack Rob Engelke slipped a pass through a seam in the Quaker defense to McBride, who completed a hat trick on a quick shot.

His fourth goal came at 9:36 of the second quarter off a feed from sophomore attack Scott MacKenzie. McBride face-dodged his defender and had a one-on-one with Casey, but the already mentally defeated goalie had about as good a chance of stopping McBride’s shot as if he had been back in his dorm room in Philadelphia.

“Coach [Bill] Tierney and Coach [David] Metzbower have been really patient with me,” McBride said. “They’ve been telling me to take my time and not try to force anything but to keep shooting, and I really appreciate that. I was waiting for a game to play a little bit better, and then today I just started shooting pretty well, and luckily they went in for me.”

McBride’s final two goals came back to back early in the third period. Despite McBride’s two goals in each of his last two games, Penn could not have predicted how outstanding McBride was going to be.

The Quakers came into this game especially fired up. Frustration stemming from 18-straight years of losing and loathing stemming from the imaginary rivalry Penn believes it has with Princeton are two factors that unleashed longstanding pent-up anger and could have propelled it to victory. McBride, in scoring more goals than the entire Penn team, coolly showed the Quakers they have three more years of losing to look forward to as long as he is around.

Princeton head coach Bill Tierney has been waiting for McBride to have a breakout game all season. McBride’s performance truly could not have come at a better time for the Tigers.

“[This win] doesn’t take away the sting of the way we played last Saturday, but what it does do is show them how good they can possibly be,” Tierney said.

Having lost to first-ranked Syracuse 13-6 on Saturday afternoon, No. 15 Princeton knows that it will have to win the rest of its Ivy League games to preserve hope for the postseason.

But all of the glory cannot be given to the freshman, spectacular as his performance was. Once again, senior goalie Alex Hewit was solid in between the pipes for the Tigers, tallying 14 saves on the night. He repeatedly made saves that drop lacrosse fans’ jaws but have become commonplace spectacles for his coaches and teammates.

Princeton’s defense was also impressive last night, led by the efforts of senior defenseman Dan Cocoziello. Cocoziello kept Craig Andrzejewski, Penn’s most dangerous attack, quiet the entire night, and the Quaker offense stopped looking for its star player toward the end of the game. Senior defensive midfielder Zach Goldberg also performed well, using his agility to stop Penn’s attackers from dodging from the top and using his speed to score a goal early in the fourth quarter. As a whole the Princeton defense prevented Penn from converting three separate times in two-man-advantage situations.

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Aside from McBride’s obvious dominance, the Princeton attack was incredibly well balanced, as eight other Tigers contributed goals. Junior midfielder Mark Kovler scored with just under seven minutes to go in the second quarter, maintaining his status as the only Princeton player with at least one goal in every game this season. Also adding goals for the Tigers were sophomore attack Scott MacKenzie, senior midfielder Pete Striebel, junior midfielder Tommy Davis, junior midfielder Rich Sgalardi and sophomore attack Ryan Morrell.

If McBride and co. continue wreaking havoc on attack, the Tigers will leave a lasting impression on more than one Ivy League goalie and ultimately find themselves in the postseason.