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Princeton University Athletics
Princeton University
Yale
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MacDonald, Orban Score Big Again In Win Over Yale in Another One-Goal Game
March 21, 2015 | Men's Lacrosse
Final Stats
Another game, another 10 points from Kip Orban and Mike MacDonald.
Another year, another one-goal Princeton-Yale game.
Orban scored four goals, MacDonald had two goals and four assists and Princeton held off Yale 11-10 in front of 1,686 at Sherrerd Field at Class of 1952 Stadium Saturday afternoon.
The win improved Princeton, ranked 13th by the media and 10th by the coaches, to 6-1 overall and 2-0 in the Ivy League. Yale, ninth in both polls, is now 5-2, 0-2. History is on Yale's side, though, as the last two times the Bulldogs lost their first two Ivy games, they came back to win their next four and then the league tournament.
Even more history suggested that this game would be close, even when Princeton built a 9-4 lead on Will Rotatori's goal three minutes into the second half.
By the time it ended, goalie Eric Sanschagrin had to make a tough save on a low shot by Sean Shakespeare with 1:33 to go and Austin deButts had to cause the last of his three turnovers and run out the final 10 seonds to protect what became, what else?, a one-goal win.
And so now it is six straight regular-season games between the two teams - all six since Chris Bates became Tiger head coach - that have been decided by one goal.
A BUNCH OF NOTES -
* Princeton lost 16-15 to Yale last year in New Haven and was 2-7 in one-goal games the last two years, including 0-3 in the league last year. Princeton is now 3-0 this year in one-goal games and also has a two-goal game.
* Princeton is now 2-0 in the Ivy League along with Cornell, a 10-9 winner over Penn in three OTs. Dartmouth defeated Harvard 12-11 in two OTs in its first league game, dropping Harvard to 0-2 along with Penn. All three Ivy games played Saturday were one-goal games. Brown, who defeated Manhattan 22-9, is 1-0 in the league and is at Princeton next Sunday at 11 a.m. in a game to be televised by ESPNU.
* Yale won 17 of 24 face-offs. Princeton, in its last 14 games against Yale, has won 99 of 306 face-offs. Because of Yale's face-off dominance, Princeton was held to 29 shots, which the Tigers turned into 11 goals. Princeton is shooting .371 as a team and entered the game in the top three in Division I in team shooting percentage.
* Kip Orban scored four goals and now has 22 on the year. His third of the game made him the 29th player in program history to reach 100 career points. He also has 78 career goals, tying him for 22nd all-time at Princeton.
* Mike MacDonald has 23 points in his last three games since being shut out by Maryland after his six-point performance against Yale. MacDonald has 106 career goals, tied with Tom Schreiber for seventh at Princeton, and 171 career points, three away from Wick Sollers for eighth.
* Gavin McBride had one goal, making him the only player on the team with at least one point in each game this season. Sean Connors had a goal and assist for his first career multi-point game. Adam Hardej had the first goal of the game, giving hiim three in the last two games after having two in the first five.
* Ryan Ambler had a goal, giving him 96 career points.
* There were two hidden moments of the game. One came after Yale cut Princeton's lead to 6-4 late in the first half and then won the face-off, only to have Zach Currier cause a turnover and give possession to Princeton. Orban then scored from MacDonald, making it 7-4 at the break - instead of 6-4 or even 6-5 had Yale scored on that possession. Yale also made it a two-goal game at 11-9 with exactly 10 minutes left and then won the face-off. The Bulldogs had five shots on the next possession, which lasted nearly three minutes, but came up empty.
* Currier won 2 of 4 face-offs, had three ground balls, caused two turnovers and had two assists.
* Sam Gravitte had seven ground balls. Will Rotatori's goal was his first of the season. Bear Altemus assisted on that goal for his first career assist.
* Princeton honored the 1990 team at halftime on the 25th anniversary of making the program's first appearance in the NCAA tournament. Princeton has played in 20 NCAA tournaments now, winning six and reaching 10 Final Fours.