Young defense faces tough challenge against No. 15 Brown

Boasting four of the country’s top 20 teams, the Ivy League doubtlessly ranks among college lacrosse’s most challenging conferences. Following an emotional 11-10 win over Yale, men’s lacrosse (6-1 overall, 2-0 Ivy League) turns its attentions to its third Ancient Eight challenger: No. 15 Brown (7-1, 1-0). The No. 10 Tigers face an offense which trails only Lyle Thompson’s University at Albany-SUNY in goals scored per game (16.88).

Historically, Princeton holds a 31-23 advantage over its rivals from Rhode Island. Last year, Brown withstood a five-goal fourth quarter from the Tigers to preserve a 12-11 win.

“This is big game for us, because they beat us by one goal last year,” junior midfielder Will Rotatori said. “So we come into it with some vengeance in mind.”

Against Yale, Rotatori, a member of the second midfield unit, recorded his first goal of the season on the first career assist from sophomore linemate Bear Altemus. Coincidentally, the former had assisted the latter in Princeton’s season opener against Manhattan College, marking the sophomore’s first-ever goal.

Brown’s attack trio of Dylan Molloy, Kylor Bellistri and Henry Blynn has emerged as one of the country’s most complete units. The six-foot, 220 lb. junior Molloy leads the conference with 41 goals and 57 points. (The next highest totals are 27, tallied by Cornell’s Matt Donovan, and 41, tallied by Princeton senior attackman Mike MacDonald.)

“They’re definitely not the Brown of the past,” junior defensive midfielder Austin DeButts said. “They’ve turned a lot of heads. We’ve been watching their film, and they’re very explosive on offense. Dylan Molloy is as good a goalscorer as there is. And they have a sort of run and gun mentality. So a big focus on defense has been stopping transition.”

DeButts, whose created turnover and ground ball punctuated Saturday’s win over Yale, leads the Tigers with 10 takeaways.

Junior midfielder Brendan Caputo leads Brown’s offense out of the midfield. In last year’s iteration of this fixture, he tallied four points on two goals and two assists.

“The main focus will be playing our regular defense while not letting their attackmen dictate the pace of the game,” Rotatori explained. “We’ll have to stay on their hands and force them to do things they’re not used to doing by pressing out.”

Faceoff specialist Will Gural has been instrumental in establishing possession for his Bruno’s playmakers. The junior has been successful on 119-188 of his draw attempts, a ratio good for ninth in the NCAA’s Division I.

This spells very bad news for Princeton. Of late, faceoffs have been almost a futile endeavor for the Tigers. Rutgers University and Yale combined to out-draw the Tigers by an absurd 50-15 margin.

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It will take a good deal of creativity for the Tigers to get possession against Brown's more accomplished faceoff unit. Variably positioning wing players may help throw off Gural and company.

“Even if they are winning clamps, we still want to make it a fifty-fifty ground ball,” DeButts said. “We’re confident on the ground with [sophomore midfielder] Zach [Currier] and [sophomore LSM] Sam [Gravitte], guys who are like vacuum cleaners.”

Should Princeton hope to emerge on the favorable side of a shootout, they will likely look to their two star seniors. After being held scoreless by a stifling University of Maryland defense, midfielder Kip Orban and MacDonald have combined for 25 goals and 12 assists over the past three games. Worthy of note, solo-captain Orban ranks first among Division I midfielders in goals per game while the Canadian sensation MacDonald has earned three Ivy League Player of the Week honors in 2015.

While this duo has been prolific, Currier has been the X-factor for the Tigers. He leads his team with 28 ground balls and ranks second with nine caused turnovers. Creativity is the hallmark of the sophomore's approach on offense. His dynamic dodging regularly draws double teams, opening up scoring opportunities for his teammates.

“He’s developed every part of his game,” Rotatori said. “Right now he’s not getting too many points. That’s because he does everything for our team. He gets ground balls. He’s on the wings facing off. He faces off himself. He’s causing turnovers. After the [Johns] Hopkins [University] game somebody made the joke that they even saw him selling popcorn in the stands.”

Spring break wins over Rutgers and Yale by scores of 12-11 and 11-10 showcased the young team’s resilience and poise in the face of a severe possession disadvantage.

How young exactly? Five sophomores and a freshman feature in Princeton’s starting lineup. With injuries to sophomore Will Reynolds and junior Mark Strabo, second-year defenseman Bear Goldstein is the lone close defender to have started a game prior to the season.

“There were a lot of question marks for our defense even before the injuries,” DeButts noted. “So it’s crazy how much the new guys have improved. We haven’t quite put it together for all four quarters. Brown is a high-powered offense. For us to come out and make a solid statement against them would be a huge confidence boost for our defense.”

Individual improvement regarding communication along with a team-first defensive strategy has allowed the Princeton defense to survive what DeButts called their “baptism by fire.”

For the Tigers, last Saturday’s result against the Bulldogs ends up marking the season’s most meaningful performance. Two frustrating losses preceded the 11-10 win. In the 2013 Ivy League tournament final, Yale outmatched the Tigers by a final goal margin of 12-8. Junior midfielder Jake Froccaro, who has been sidelined for all but two contests in 2015, scored 10 goals in a single game against the Bulldogs last season. Nonetheless, Yale defended their home turf with a 16-15 win.

“It felt great. Liberating,” Rotatori explained. “We’ve always come up short against them, even though we know feel like we’re the better team. This time, from the first whistle, we were beating them up from end to end. Our defense was breaking down well. Our offense was getting goals when we needed it. We had no second thoughts about winning.”

Four wins. Ten losses. Over the past three years, men’s lacrosse compiled a 4-10 record in games decided by a single goal. In 2015, the Tigers have discovered that elusive, late-game magic, emerging victorious in all three of their one goal contests.

“Honestly, it’s a mental thing that you have to overcome,” Rotatori said. “You can never waver. In the past, we’ve worried about who can step up. But now we know that someone will be able to make a play on offense or a stop on defense.”

DeButts echoed how his team has focused on developing their finishing form.

“Coming out of last year, that was something that we really focused on,” he said. “A team that wins one goal games as a certain edge to them. They find a way to execute in late game situations. For the last few years we've been the team that's lost those close games. It's great that we're right there and now on the other side of it.”