Princeton University Athletics
Princeton University
Penn
Doneger's OT Goals Gives Princeton Win Over Penn
April 05, 2005 | Men's Lacrosse
April 5, 2005
Final Stats
Philadelphia - Jason Doneger picked a perfect time to break out of his scoreless streak. In doing so, he may have saved the Princeton men's lacrosse season.
Doneger's goal with 1:43 remaining in the second overtime gave Princeton a 6-5 win over Penn in men's lacrosse at Franklin Field Tuesday afternoon. It was the second overtime goal of Doneger's career, and it ended a streak of 202:43 without a goal for Doneger, who led the Ivy League in goals scored each fo the last two years.
The win also ended a six-game losing streak for Princeton dating to last year's NCAA semifinals and improved the Tigers to 1-5 on the year, 1-1 in the Ivy League. Should Princeton win its remaining Ivy games, it would be guaranteed at least a share of its 11th straight Ivy League championship.
Princeton had lost its first five games by a total of 11 goals, including a 9-8 loss at Yale Saturday. Penn, an NCAA tournament team a year ago, fell to 1-8, 0-4.
"I think we were all starting to feel the burden of needing to get a win," Doneger said. "I didn't know if I had enough of an angle to shoot at, but I figured I might as well try. It's been tough. We were 0-5. I haven't been scoring. Now that we have the first win, we have something we can build on."
Doneger's other overtime goal also came in a midweek game, two years ago at Loyola in another game Princeton won 6-5. His goal also came on the same end of the field in the same stadium that Andy Moe scored in in the second overtime to defeat Syracuse 10-9 in 1992 for the first of Princeton's six NCAA championships.
This time, the cutting Doneger scored off a feed from behind the net from Peter Trombino. It came on Princeton's first shot in the overtime periods and came after Penn had taken six OT shots. "We're thrilled to get a win," said Princeton coach Bill Tierney. "The big picture is to focus on the Ivy League championship and what we have to do to get the automatic bid to the NCAA tournament, but I really just want to focus on improving. Hopefully we can get on a roll now. I know this team can play some great lacrosse."
The game marked the collegiate debut of Alex Hewit in goal for Princeton. Hewit, the third Princeton goalie to start a game this year along with Dave Law and Matthew Larkin, made nine saves in his first game, including three in the overtimes.
"I was nervous going into the game," said Hewit. "Our team really supported me. They made any nerves I had go away. The other goalies were great to me. They really helped me settle down and enjoy the game."
Penn's James Riordan tied the game with 7:14 to go in the fourth quarter, and it stayed 5-5 for the next 17:31 before Doneger's game-winner. Penn had the better of the opportunities in the late going, but Hewit made a big save in the final minute of regulation and fellow freshman Zach Goldberg made several big plays on defense to keep Penn away.
The best chance to end the game came in the first few seconds of overtime. Princeton controlled the draw, but Luke Dixson stepped in front of an Oliver Barry pass back to Hewit and found himself one-on-one with the goalie. Dixson shot it over the top of the goal from no more than five yards out.
"He anticipated the play," Hewit said. "I just tried to get really big and take up as much of the net as I could. Luckily, he shot it high."
Dixson's missed opportunity came almost 60 minutes after Princeton first took the lead, which came on Scott Sowanick's goal 50 seconds into the game. The score stayed 1-0 until Alan Eberstein scored for Penn with 9.5 seconds remaining in the first, marking the sixth time Princeton has allowed a goal in the final 10 seconds of a quarter this year. It also kept Princeton from having the lead at the end of a quarter for the first time this year.
The Quakers then took their only lead at 2-1 on a goal from Garrett Blomquist with 1:54 gone in the second, but Pete Striebel, Mike Gaudio and Whitney Hayes all scored to make it 4-2 Princeton at the half. It was the first time in 22 tries that Princeton had the lead at the end of a quarter.
Dixson scored the first goal of the second half, but Trombino answered for Princeton to make it 5-3 Tigers with 5:40 to go in the third. The Tigers would not score again until the second overtime.
Princeton came into the game having only led for 33:36 of 300 minutes on the year, but the Tigers would lead for 39:00 against Penn before Riordan tied it late.
Princeton used seven freshmen in key roles in the game, and Doneger's goal was just the fifth of the season by a junior or senior, compared with 38 by freshmen or sophomores. Princeton's freshmen and sophomores had scored every goal since Doneger's last one, which came in the game at Hofstra.
The win was Princeton's 16th straight against Penn.
"We need to keep working, keep getting better," said Hewit. "We might have been lacking some confidence, but we have some to work with now."
Princeton is at Rutgers Saturday, while Penn hosts Dartmouth Sunday.