Princeton University Athletics
Players Mentioned
Princeton-England Men's Lacrosse: Hewit Scores Again, Trees On The Field, Talking Points, And A Win
June 06, 2008 | Men's Lacrosse
The chatter coming from the English players during their men's lacrosse game against Princeton Friday morning was incessant. It was non-stop communication on both sides of the field, with a mix of encouragement and criticism mixed in.
"Their accents were great," said Princeton's Dave Baker, who then, like most of his teammates, launched into his best British tone.
The English accents echoed everywhere Friday morning at the La Manga Club Resort lacrosse field, and they were to be expected when Princeton's opponent was the English national team. The skill level of the opponents might have been another matter.
"They had great sticks," said Princeton's Zack Goldberg. "Their stick skills were amazing."
Princeton needed a late push to get past the English 9-7 in the first of two games between the teams here. The game was played Friday at 10 a.m. local time, which meant it was a 4 a.m. start in the Eastern Time Zone that the Tigers had been in less than 24 hours before.
Princeton trailed 7-5 late in the third quarter before scoring the final four goals of the day. Bob Schneider, who led the Tigers with two goals and two assists, scored with 18 seconds remaining in the third (the game was played with international rules of 20-minute running time quarters, so there was no face-off after Schneider's goal), and then Scott MacKenzie, Tommy Davis and Pete Striebel scored in the fourth quarter.
The biggest play of the game was turned in by Long Ellis, the rising sophomore defenseman, who caused an English turnover, picked up the ground ball, danced near midfield to stay onside before a teammate came back, carried the ball into the box and then fed Davis for what proved to be the game-winner with 13:25 go play.
Princeton goalie Nikhil Ashra, who played the second half, made it stand up from there before Striebel sealed it with his second goal, which came with 5:16 to play. Ashra made eight saves while allowing just two goals in his 40 minutes.
Of course, Ashra didn't actually score a goal, something Alex Hewit, Princeton's other goalie, did do. Hewit did something that few goalies have ever done, and perhaps none has ever done, when he scored in the second straight game spanning two continents. Hewit scored against Brown in Princeton's regular season finale more than a month ago, and he came back with Princeton's second goal against the English on a run down the middle of the field.
Princeton coach Bill Tierney played every healthy player in the game except for goalies Evan Magruder and Christian Blake.
The players from both teams met after the game for pictures and shared concern over how a one-day national transit workers strike was going to affect them. One effect for the bad was the need to cancel a planned postgame clinic featuring the two teams and local youth from a nearby mining town, including some handicapped children, because of a lack of transportation.
When the game ended, Princeton coaches Bill Tierney and Greg Raymond stayed behind at the request of the English coaching staff to go over some extra man offense and defense. The English are preparing for play in the upcoming European championships, where they, the Germans and the Irish are the favorites.
The Princeton win didn't diminish the respect that each team developed for the other. The Tigers had no idea what to expect from these games, but drills yesterday and the game today certainly got their attention.
As for the English, it was the same story.
"They have guys as big as trees," said England's Alex Davidson. "I ran into No. 48 [6-5 235 pound Nick Hermandorfer] and thought 'who put the tree on the field?' I was like 'you guys work out much?' "
Most of the English players come from the North of the country, where the sport has a head start. Dave Leach, who at 33 is the self-proclaimed "grandfather" of the English team, is from the South.
"These guys [Princeton] play fast," Leach said. "When I was learning to play, we were barely able to field teams. We'd have 12 guys on a team or something like that, and guys had to play the whole game. Because we didn't have a lot of guys, we played really, really slowly. I mean really slowly."
All of the English players began playing soccer, rugby or cricket and turned to lacrosse at around 12 or 13, when the better soccer players began to be steered towards their respective club teams. Lacrosse itself was played primarily at clubs, but in recent years it has grown to include many university teams.
"We love it," Leach said. "It's an honor to play against a team like Princeton."
The transportation strike limited the teams to staying on the resort grounds in the afternoon, when a trip to the resort's beach was planned. The teams will meet for dinner at a banquet in the evening and play again tomorrow.