Princeton Falls To Penn In Ivy Opener

Saturday, March 17

Princeton, N.J.

4:00 PM

Princeton University

3-3, 0-1Ivy

Penn

4-3, 1-0Ivy

Penn Quakers

Princeton Tigers

Riley Thompson scores one of his two goals in Princeton's 14-7 loss to Penn Saturday.

Photo by: Shelley M. Szwast

March 17, 2018 | Men's Lacrosse

Box Score

In the rather strange world of the Princeton-Penn rivalry of late, the 2018 edition featured a seven-goal margin of victory, which happens to be the closest game in the series in the last three years. Oh, and the visitor has won every time.

Once again nothing carried over from the previous year, most notably the performance of Penn's Reid Junkin, who made 20 saves - 11 in the fourth quarter - to lead the Quakers to a 14-7 win over Princeton on Sherrerd Field in the Ivy League opener for both.

A year ago, Junkin allowed 15 goals and made eight saves in a 17-8 Princeton win at Franklin Field, which came one year after a 20-10 Penn win the last time the teams played at Princeton. That game, of course, followed a 17-11 Princeton win in Philadelphia back in 2015.

Added all together, and the average margin of the last four Princeton-Penn games has been eight goals, and the visiting team has won all four.

The 2018 game was closer for longer than the three before it, and Princeton was actually within two at 7-5 late in the third quarter, despite the fact that Penn had controlled the tempo from basically the opening face-off and held the Tigers at one point to a scoreless a streak of 26 minutes. Unlike last week, when Princeton rallied from four down in the fourth quarter against Rutgers, Penn would build its lead and never look back, going on a 6-0 run to break the game open.

NOTES

* Riley Thompson and Austin Sims had two goals each to lead Princeton. The Tigers also got single goals from Connor McCarthy, Chris Brown and Dawson McKenzie.

* Michael Sowers had three assists, giving him 65 for his career and moving him into a tie for 14th all-time at Princeton. Sowers has had at least two points in every game of his career.

* Andrew Song had a caused turnover and four ground balls. Sam Bonafede won 15 of 24 face-offs and had seven ground balls and two caused turnovers. He and Song are tied for the team lead with 22 ground balls.

* Chris Brown scored in the first minute of the game for what would be Princeton's only lead of the day. The Tigers would then score one goal in the next 33:06.

* Princeton is at Yale next Saturday and Brown the following Saturday. The Tigers have three remaining home games - April 7 against Stony Brook, April 14 against Dartmouth and April 28 against Cornell.