Men's Lacrosse: Ivy League season opens with victory

The game was hardly a blowout — the teams engaged in an up-and-down struggle for the first three quarters of play — but the Tigers returned home victorious in their first Ivy League game of the season. Forty-five minutes, six extra-man opportunities, five ties and three lead changes failed to give either squad a clear upper hand. It wasn’t until the final quarter that Princeton found a spark of brilliance behind the heroics of senior midfielder Rich Sgalardi, who scored a crucial goal that shifted the momentum and gave Princeton one last push.

Yale took full advantage of having more than 1,000 fans from Alumni Day watching to jump to an early 1-0 lead. Yale midfielder Gregory Mahony scored the opening goal just 44 seconds into the game. Princeton quickly tied the score on junior attack Scott MacKenzie’s rocket four minutes later. Following a delay-of-game penalty on the Bulldogs, senior midfielder Mark Kovler found the net on a nifty pass from sophomore attack Jack McBride. Senior attack Tommy Davis gave Princeton a two-goal lead shortly after.

With five minutes, 37 seconds to go in the first quarter, Yale midfielder Michael Pratt forced a Princeton turnover, picked up the ground ball, ran the length of the field and put the ball past freshman goalie Tyler Fiorito to cut the lead to one at 3-2.

For the next 40 minutes of play, the teams traded one-goal leads, each side constantly trying to best the other.

Despite leading 4-3 at the end of the first quarter, the Bulldogs only scored three more goals in the game. The game’s last tied score came at six apiece with the third quarter winding down, and that’s when Sgalardi stepped up. Following a save by Fiorito, senior midfielder Josh Lesko picked up the ground ball, and Princeton took it up for the last shot of the quarter. The Tigers passed back and forth in Bulldog territory for roughly 40 seconds before Sgalardi saw an open seam and launched the ball past the Bulldog defense and goalie Jonathan Falcone. The senior had given Princeton its fourth lead of the night, and that’s all that was needed for the Tigers to seal the deal.

“We started off pretty slow — the first half wasn’t great — but our defense really locked it down in the third quarter, we only gave up one in the third, and [Sgalardi’s] goal at the end really gave us an offensive swing,” Fiorito said.

Princeton came out charged with momentum in the fourth quarter and scored three goals in less than two-and-a-half minutes to extend the lead to 10-7. A final score by McBride added the icing to the cake as Princeton sealed its first Ivy victory of the year.

“Yale is a really good team, and it was a very close game the first three quarters, and we were only up by one at the end of the third. We pulled away in the fourth quarter, got a few transition goals,” sophomore attack Chris McBride said. “Our defense played great — that really helped — and [Fiorito] played a really good game. We were getting good shots the whole game, especially in the first three quarters, but we just weren’t shooting all that well. We weren’t quite playing at the level we wanted to. Their goalie made a few good saves, and we just never got into a rhythm offensively. But all the credit to them: Their defense played great, and they were really pressuring our hands.”

Sgalardi led the Tigers with five points on two goals and three assists. His 22 points this season have already eclipsed his point total of 18 over his first three seasons of play.

Princeton received offensive production from six different players. MacKenzie, Davis, McBride, Sgalardi and Kovler each had two goals for the Tigers. In addition to winning 10 of 20 faceoffs — a percentage Princeton has not accomplished against Yale for four straight years — junior faceoff man Paul Barnes also added a goal against the Bulldogs. Prior to this contest, Yale had won 58 of 76 faceoffs in the last four meetings between the two Ivy teams.

Head coach Bill Tierney’s let-loose-and-shoot offense reappeared on Saturday after a brief hiatus against Rutgers. Princeton totaled 42 shots against the Bulldogs, including 14 in the first 15 minutes of play. Despite earning six extra-man opportunities from Yale penalties, Princeton was only able to convert on two of those, while the Bulldogs scored three goals on just as many extra-man opportunities.

“We slowed them down offensively after the first quarter, and our defensive really picked it up after giving up four goals in the first,” Fiorito said. “We’re just really glad to get that first Ivy game out of the way.”