Princeton University Athletics
Princeton University
Butler
Doneger, Trombino Lead Way As Princeton Thumps Butler 19-1
April 17, 2005 | Men's Lacrosse
April 17, 2005
Final Stats
Jason Doneger is heating up, and the rest of his team is following right along.
Doneger scored four times to become the eighth Princeton player to reach 100 career goals and Peter Trombino had a career-high six points to lead the Princeton men's lacrosse team to a 19-1 win over Butler in front of 1,219 at the Class of 1952 Stadium Sunday afternoon. Princeton outshot the visitors 64-12 and reached Tiger head coach Bill Tierney's self-imposed 19-goal limit for the 19th time since 1990.
Doneger and Trombino scored goals seven seconds apart during the second quarter, marking the shortest elapsed time between goals in Tierney's 18 years at Princeton.
The game, the first ever between the schools, completed a weekend sweep for Princeton that saw the Tigers outscore Harvard and Butler by a combined 31-5. Princeton averaged 15.5 goals per game after entering the weekend averaging 6.9 for the first seven games, and Doneger scored nine in the two games after scoring six for the first seven games.
"My responsibility is scoring goals," said Doneger. "It was a very good weekend for us. Everyone has a lot of confidence now at the right time."
Princeton improved to 3-6, winning for the third time in four games, while Butler slipped to 4-5. Princeton now heads to Cornell next Saturday to take on the Big Red, who are a perfect 4-0 in the Ivy League.
A win would tie the Tigers for first place in the league in the loss column; a loss would eliminate the Tigers from a shot at their 11th straight Ivy title and would also eliminate them mathematically from the NCAA tournament. "Our NCAA tournament starts now," said Tierney. "With the way this season has gone, this is the best situation that we could have hoped for at this point."
Doneger followed his five-goal outing against Harvard Saturday with four more against the Bulldogs. His nine goals gave him 101 for his career, making him the eighth in Princeton history to pass 100 goals. Of that group, all but one, Wick Sollers '77, has played for Tierney.
Of the eight players with 100, only two scored fewer goals as freshmen than Doneger did. Sollers did not play as a freshman, while Josh Sims, who finished with 103, had eight as a freshman, one fewer than Doneger. Jesse Hubbard's 163 are the all-time record at Princeton.
"It's flattering to be in that group," said Doneger. "But this isn't about me. It's about our team and getting ready to play some big games now."
Princeton led 2-0 at the end of the first quarter, 7-0 at halftime and 15-1 at the end of three. Trombino had three goals and three assists, while Scott Sowanick had a goal and two assists and Mike Gaudio had two goals. Among the other goal scorers were Hakim Thompson and Tommy Firth, both of whom scored his first career goal.
Pat Hurto scored the lone Butler goal.
Princeton won 18 of 24 face-offs, including 5 of 6 each for Alex Berg and Mike DeSantis.
Tierney used every healthy player on the roster, including all four goalies.