Princeton University
Cornell
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No. 5 Cornell Tops No. 6 Princeton Despite Huge Day From Hewit
April 22, 2006 | Men's Lacrosse
April 22, 2006
Final Stats
The Princeton men's lacrosse team, in its game against Cornell Saturday, was outshot by 32-13, shut out in the first half, held to its lowest goal total in 17 years - and nearly won.
Alex Hewit was the reason why.
Hewit made 15 saves and he and the Tiger defense held Cornell, the second-highest scoring team in the country, more than eight goals below its average but still came up just short, falling 4-3 to the Big Red in a taut thriller witnessed by 2,215 soaked fans at the Class of 1952 Stadium.
The win gave Cornell, ranked fifth by the USILA and sixth by Inside Lacrosse, a half-game lead over Princeton (No. 6/7) in the Ivy League race as the Big Red are now 4-1 in the league and the Tigers 3-1. The Big Red would win the league's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament with a win over Brown next week, but Princeton would be assured of no worse than a tie for the league title with wins over Darmtouth and Brown the next two Saturdays. Princeton also hosts Rutgers Tuesday night.
"It was tough," said Hewit, who leads Division I in save percentage and played to a .789 save percentage against the Big Red. "We made a strong effort, and we were ready to play. It was a great game. We just came up a little short."
The game came 52 weeks after Cornell defeated Princeton 17-4 in Ithaca to end the Tigers' 10-year reign as Ivy champion. The Big Red scored on their first six possessions and led 10-2 at halftime in that one.
This time around, there would be no offensive explosion. Princeton held Cornell, averaging 12.2 goals per game, to two in the first half, while Cornell's defense was even better, shutting out the Tigers altogether.
"We knew what happened last year," said Princeton coach Bill Tierney. "We lost to this team 17-4. We knew how they could score, and we knew we had to not let that happen to have a chance." Derek Haswell scored the first goal of the game with 6:19 left in the first quarter, and David Mitchell scored 44 seconds into the second quarter to make it 2-0.
From there, Hewit and the Tigers shut the Big Red out for 36:46, during which time Hewit made 12 of his saves. Still, it looked for a long time that two goals might be enough for the Red.
Princeton's first goal came from Jim O'Brien less than a minute into the third quarter, and it would stay 2-1 into the fourth. Hewit made five saves in the third, all five of which came from point-blank range.
The Tigers managed just 10 shots through the first three quarters as they were hurt by Cornell's aggressive rides that hounded the home team into eight failed clears in 22 attempts.
Mark Kovler, who had assisted on O'Brien's goal, finally pulled the Tigers even with 11:!7 to play, and then Princeton took its only lead when Alex Haynie scored off a feed from Scott Sowanick 1:14 later.
Cornell came storming back, tying the score on Haswell's goal with 7:30 to play and then scoring the game-winner when Haswell assisted Mitchell's goal, a rocket from in front, with 4:02 left.
Cornell's Tommy Schmicker then controlled the face-off but was trapped by four Princeton players near the sideline when an official stopped play because Schmicker had lost his shoe. Cornell was able to retain possession on the restart and then control the ball the rest of the way, except for one final Princeton turnover that came when Hewit picked up a ground ball but couldn't complete a clear.
Princeton's three goals were the fewest the Tigers have scored since a 10-3 loss to Hofstra in 1989. Peter Trombino was held without a point for the first time in his career and saw his 21-game goal-scoring streak end.
Matt McMonagle made five saves for Cornell.