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Schneider Caps Career Day With OT Game-Winner As Princeton Rallies To Stun Harvard
April 12, 2008 | Men's Lacrosse
Bob Schneider was four years old the last time Harvard defeated Princeton in men's lacrosse. Now 22, Schneider made sure that Princeton's streak against the Crimson didn't end on his watch.
Schneider, a senior captain, scored a career-high four goals, including the game-winner 1:53 into overtime, to lead Princeton to a thrilling 9-8, come-from-behind win over Harvard in front of 1,601 at Harvard Stadium. Schneider's third goal, with 1:20 remaining in regulation, had forced overtime.
Princeton has now defeated Harvard 18 straight times.
Princeton never led in the game until Schneider's game-winner, and the Tigers trailed for 54:46 before Schneider tied it. Harvard's biggest lead was four at 7-3 in the third quarter.
Alex Hewit robbed Harvard's Zach Widbin on the doorstep on the first possession of the overtime. Schneider scored on Princeton's only OT possession.
The win kept the Tigers undefeated in the Ivy League at 3-0, tied with Brown (3-0) and a half-game behind Cornell (4-0) in the league race. The three league leaders will square off in each of the next three weekends, as Princeton hosts Cornell next Saturday, followed by Brown at Cornell the following week and finally Princeton at Brown May 3.
Princeton was playing for the first time without Mark Kovler, who had been the Tigers' leader in goals scored before breaking his ankle in practice. Kovler will miss the rest of the season.
It appeared that the loss of Kovler, as well as the trends of having never led at any point of its four losses and having been winless away from home, were going to do in Princeton against the Crimson.
Frances Ellis scored the first goal of the game 3:54 into the first quarter, and the Crimson quickly built the lead to 3-0 on goals from Nicki Sapia and Jason Duboe in the next six minutes. Harvard would then answer each Princeton goal, as the teams traded scores to 4-1, 5-2 and finally 6-3 on Max Motschwiller's goal just 13 seconds before the half. Princeton's Pete Striebel hit the same spot on the crossbar twice in the second quarter, both times while Princeton was down by two.
Motschwiller's goal seemed to take everything out of Princeton, and it only got worse when Ellis scored with 5:30 left in the third to make it 7-3 Harvard. Princeton, though, would not go quietly.
Jack McBride scored his second goal fo the game with just 17 seconds left in the third to make it a three-goal game again. For McBride, it was his eighth goal of the week after having six against Penn Tuesday night - and those eight goals came on eight shots.
Neither team scored in the first six minutes of the fourth quarter, but Alex Haynie pulled Princeton within two with a goal with 8:39 left. For Haynie, it was his seventh goal of the season, all of which have come in the fourth quarter.
Tommy Davis kept the Princeton run going when he scored on an assist from Striebel with 6:08 to go, and the Tigers had two shots after that to tie it only to watch the Crimson's Joe Pike make the save both times.
Harvard would get a huge answer from Jeff Wannop with 4:58 to go when he scored to break the Tigers' streak and give the momentum back to the Crimson.
Princeton would get a turnover after a lost face-off, though, and Davis would score, again from Striebel, to make it 8-7 with 2:04 to go as a torrential rain began to fall on Harvard Stadium. Alex Berg won the next face-off, and Schneider tied it after Rich Sgalardi found him 10 yards out on the right side with 1:20 to play.
Berg again won the face-off, but Schneider's shot went wide, and the game went to overtime.
Harvard won the face-off and worked the ball to Widbin, a senior midfielder. Widbin came in front and then found himself one-on-one with Hewit after Zack Goldberg slipped on the wet turf, but Hewit went down to stuff Widbin's try to end it. Princeton cleared and called timeout, and Sgalardi again fed Schneider, who rocketed one high past Pike from 10 yards out to end it.
Sgalardi and Striebel both had thee assists. Davis finished with two goals and two assists. Duboe and Ellis scored twice each for Harvard.
Dan Cocoziello shut out Harvard's Dean Gibbons, the team's second-leader scorer and assist leader, marking the second time this week that Cocoziello had blanked his man after holding Penn's Craig Andrjzewski without a point Tuesday night. Gibbons came into the game with back-to-back four-point efforts.
Berg won 15 of 21 face-offs after losing the first two.