Princeton University Athletics
Davis, Defense Lead Princeton Past Brown, 10-7
April 08, 2000 | Men's Lacrosse
April 8, 2000
PROVIDENCE, R.I. - Damien Davis led a stingy defense and added a key goal in transition to lead Princeton to a 10-7 win over Brown in an Ivy League men's lacrosse game in front of 1,763 at Stevenson Field.
The victory was fourth-ranked Princeton's 28th straight in the Ivy League as the Tigers improved to 6-1 overall and 3-0 in the league. No. 15 Brown fell to 4-4, 1-1.
"This was a tough one for us," said Princeton coach Bill Tierney. "It's always tough up here."
The game was tied 4-4 at halftime before Princeton took control with a pair of B.J. Prager goals in the first 3:45 of the third quarter. Josh Sims made it 7-4 with eight minutes remaining in the quarter, but Brown's Michael Hughes made it a 7-5 game with a goal at the 9:34 mark.
Brown then had a chance to close within one with control in the Princeton end in the final two minutes of the quarter, but Davis picked up a loose ball and went end-to-end to beat Bear goalie Beret Dickson with 26 seconds remaining to build it back to a three-goal game. "I had the opportunity, and I went," said Davis, who had an assist Tuesday in a win over Penn to give him the only points this year by a Princeton longstick. "I was going to pass it, but I had an open lane, and I went to the goal."
Matt Striebel scored on an extra-man goal with 3:45 gone in the fourth quarter to make it 9-5, but Brown answered with two straight to make it 9-7 with six minutes to play. The Bears then controlled the face-off and the ball for the next three minutes, but Princeton's defense did not allow any good chances during this stretch.
"We were switching up a lot there," Davis said. "We're a bunch of young guys, but we're coming along. We're getting better, and now we're playing with confidence. This was a tough game for us, and it was a good win to get."
Princeton sealed the game when Prager scored his third goal of the game with 44 seconds to play. Striebel assisted on all three Prager goals and finished with one goal and four assists. Prager has 11 goals in his last three games.
"The Ivy League is our first goal every year," said Princeton goalie Trevor Tierney. "The quality of the league is going up, and winning is a very big deal. I hope the rest of the lacrosse world realizes how tough the Ivy League is. There aren't going to be any easy games. Now we have Harvard next week, and they're tough. After that, it's Cornell, and they're awesome right now. It's not going to be easy."
Princeton jumped on top against Brown with two Owen Daly goals in the first two minutes, but Brown's Jimmy Mormile answered with six minutes left in the quarter. Mormile's goal snapped a streak of four-straight games in which Princeton had shut out Ivy League opponents in the first quarter, but the Tigers held Brown to one goal in the first 15 minutes to run its streak of consecutive games of holding an Ivy foe to one or no goals to 10 straight.
Goals by Chris Berrier and Sims made it 4-1 Princeton at the end of the first quarter. Brown, though, had a big second quarter, outscoring Princeton 3-0 to even things at 4-4 at intermission.
"I've been coming to games here since I was a little kid," Trevor Tierney said. "I know they're always close, always tough, and this was no different."
Tierney made eight of his 13 saves in the second half.
"I thought Trevor was fantastic," Bill Tierney said. "I thought the whole defense was fantastic. That's the kind of day it was."
Brown outshot Princeton 39-38 and had a 42-33 edge in ground balls. The Tigers were 3 for 6 on extra-man opportunities.
"I thought their shots were pretty good ones," Trevor Tierney said. "Brown put a lot of pressure on us, and I thought our defense was good. I thought Damien had a huge game."
Princeton is at Harvard next Saturday (April 15) for a 7 p.m. start. Brown hosts Harvard Wednesday.