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Penn Snaps 21-Game Losing Streak Against Princeton
March 19, 2011 | Men's Lacrosse
The University of Pennsylvania honored its 1986 Ivy League championship men's lacrosse team Saturday afternoon with a big tailgate and a recognition at halftime.
The last time Penn beat Princeton in men's lacrosse, those 1986 Quakers were recent college grads, and the players in the 2011 game were either babies or not yet born. Until this year, that is.
Penn, which had come agonizingly close to ending the streak the last two years, never trailed against Princeton en route to an 8-3 win in front of 1,737 sunny fans at Franklin Field. The loss dropped Princeton to 1-4, 0-1 in the Ivy League, while Penn is now 4-2, 1-0.
The last Penn win over Princeton came back in 1989, a game that gave the Quakers seven straight against the Tigers. Between then and this year, there would be no Quaker wins.
Not that they didn't come close more than once. Princeton won five of the 21 games by one goal, including three in overtime. Each of the last two years saw Princeton fall behind big against Penn, only to come back and win in overtime both times.
With that backdrop, Princeton came into West Philadelphia against a team that desperately wanted to win - and minus some of its most important players.
Jack McBride, who missed the last three games with a groin injury, returned but played very little against the Quakers. Tom Schreiber, a freshman middie who was Princeton's leading scorer through four games, didn't play after being injured against North Carolina. Jonathan Meyers, Princeton's No. 2 longstick midfielder, didn't play for the second straight game, and none of this includes starting defenseman Rob Castelo, who tore two knee ligaments against Johns Hopkins two weeks ago and is lost for the year.
Without a healthy Jack McBride and with no Schreiber, Princeton struggled offensively, managing 21 shots for the game, of which only six came in the first half.
Princeton's defense, and especially goalie Tyler Fiorito, kept the Tigers in the game though, as neither team could manage much in the first 30 minutes. Penn got the first goal of the day six minutes in on a a shot from Rob Fitzpatrick, and Princeton evened it on Mike Grossman's goal with 1:24 left in the quarter.
That would be it until 54 seconds remained in the half, when Morgan Griff scored from Al Kohart to make it 2-1 Quakers at intermission.
Penn scored the first two of the second half to make it 4-1, but Tucker Shanley answered with 6:20 to go in the third. Penn then scored what might have been the biggest goal of the day as Nick Richards, taking his first face-off of the game, won the draw, came down the middle and built it back to a three-goal advantage just seven seconds after Shanley's goal.
Forest Sonnenfeldt, who has at leat one goal in every game, forced a turnover in front of the goal, picked up the loose ball and scored to make it 5-3 with 4:29 left in the third, but that would be it for Princeton.
Penn broke it open in the fourth with two goals 28 seconds apart and then added a late one for the final of 8-3.
Fiorito made 14 saves for Princeton, several of which were highlight-reel stops from in close. Freshman Brian Feeney made seven saves for Penn, including several big ones to keep Princeton from getting back into it.
The teams combined to turn the ball over 35 times against big defensive pressure. Princeton had 18 turnovers, of which Brett Hughes and Anthony Santomo combined to cause seven.
Long Ellis caused two of Penn's 17 turnovers.
The Tigers host Yale Saturday, March 26, at 1 p.m. at Class of 1952 Stadium.