Men's Lacrosse: Fiorito puts Tigers in national spotlight

But in the first five minutes of the second quarter, while holding a fragile 3-2 lead, the No. 5 Tigers set the tone for the rest of the game.

Correction: In the first five minutes of the second quarter, freshman goalie Tyler Fiorito set the tone for the rest of the game. On Syracuse’s first possession of the quarter, Fiorito made two huge saves, and following a third save with just more than 11 minutes left in the half, Fiorito tried his hand at offense.

Harnessing his inner Alex Hewit ’08 — Princeton’s goalie from 2006 to 2008, who scored a goal against Brown during his senior season — Fiorito brought the ball across half and, unguarded, raced toward the Syracuse goal. The freshman from Phoenix, Md., was brought down before he could take a shot, but he drew a slashing penalty, and the Tigers opened a two-goal lead on the ensuing man advantage.

“We have been struggling with our clearing game, and Tyler’s been a little hesitant to get involved, as all freshman goalies are,” head coach Bill Tierney said. “We weren’t expecting him to run all the way down the field, but we have told him to handle the ball. Today, he did.”

The Tigers’ lead was challenged throughout the rest of the game, but Princeton never trailed, and behind a career-high 15 saves from Fiorito, a solid performance from junior defenseman Jeremy Hirsch and four points from senior midfielder Rich Sgalardi, the Tigers notched their third victory over a top-10 opponent this season.

“It is really easy to get excited for these types of games,” Fiorito said. “We have a lot of great senior leadership that keeps us calm and relaxed, and the defense stood together. We have pride in what we stand for as a team and a defense, and we played really well today.”

Heading into the game, Princeton’s strategy was simple. The Tigers were not trying to slow the tempo down, but if Syracuse’s loaded offense had sustained possessions, the Princeton attack was under strict instructions to give the longpoles rest.

“We were not looking to slow down today,” Tierney said. “We asked [our players] to be smart. Our rule was that if we played defense for more than a minute and a half, we were going to pull it out and take our time. You need to rest [your defense] because we knew Syracuse was so great and they were going to come at us so hard.”

The first half was dominated by the Princeton defense. Fiorito made eight saves in the first two quarters, and the longsticks in front of him were equally impressive. Hirsch, senior defenseman and tri-captain Chris Peyser and freshman defenseman Chad Wiedmaier were excellent in shutting down the vaunted Orange attack.

“When you know your goalie is playing well and he’s seeing the ball, you tend to get out and be a little more aggressive making slides and checks that other times you are a little hesitant on and I thought that happened today,” Tierney said.

The Orange showed signs of life to start the second half, knotting the game at five with 10:18 left in the third quarter, but Princeton was quick to respond, re-establishing a two-goal lead on goals from sophomore attack Jack McBride and junior attack Rob Engelke.

Throughout the game, Princeton was one step ahead of the Orange. Syracuse never led and mustered only three ties, at one, two and five. Whenever the Orange pulled within one goal, as they did four separate times, the Tigers were quick to respond.

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“All week we talked about their defense and the talent back there,” McBride said. “We emphasized staying composed … We were able to calm down, keep our heads and execute when we needed to.”

Syracuse launched one final offensive push in the fourth quarter, but Fiorito once again channeled Hewit — this time not the offensive Hewit, but the Hewit that finished his career with the third-best goals-against average in NCAA history. Fiorito made three saves and gave up just one goal in the fourth quarter, and the Princeton defense converted all six of its clearing attempts in the game’s final frame.

The stars for Princeton came from all different parts of the field. Fiorito recorded the highest single-game save total since the Tigers’ first game last season, and the defense was almost perfect, but the Tigers were solid offensively as well. McBride and senior midfielder Mark Kovler scored three goals each, but the Tigers’ best offensive player, and the postgame Player of the Game was Sgalaradi.

After tallying nine points in his last two games, Sgalardi continued his torrid pace with two goals and two assists on Saturday. Sgalardi has already doubled his goals and assists totals from last season, and the reigning Ivy League Player of the Week has emerged as one of the Tigers’ most consistent and versatile players in the offensive zone.

“Its all about confidence,” Tierney said of Sgalardi’s emergence this season. “It’s about a guy who comes into his senior year saying, ‘I’ve been a pretty good player. I’m going to get myself in shape. I’m going to work really hard and see where it takes me…’ His biggest thing is that he can shoot and feed, and there are very few middies out there that can do that.”

But this game ultimately belonged to the defense. The Tigers held the Orange scoreless for two different stretches of 13 minutes or more — once in the second quarter and once in the third quarter.

Syracuse was held to its second-lowest halftime goal total this season and held to single digits for just the second time all season.

This is the Tigers’ third top-10 victory this season and second in an NFL stadium. Elite opponents, football venues, Princeton victories. After yet another woodshedding of an elite lacrosse program, it is not difficult to connect the dots: This team has the potential, and clearly the poise, to play deep into the NCAA tournament.

“There is a common thread in that, if you look at every one of [my previous national championship] teams, they had phenomenal senior classes and great goalies. And I think we have both of those this season,” Tierney said.

Obviously it is still too early to say for sure, and the Tigers still have to get through a vastly improved Ivy League schedule, but after Saturday’s game, the label “national title contender” appears to have returned to the storied Princeton men’s lacrosse program.