Princeton Heads Back On The Road To Take On Harvard

PRINCETON (6-5, 1-3) at HARVARD (7-4, 2-2)

Harvard Stadium • Cambridge, Mass.
Saturday, April 21, 2018 • 1 p.m.
Series history Princeton leads 59-23-1
Last year Princeton defeated Harvard 12-9

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The Princeton men's lacrosse team travels to Harvard for the final road game of the 2018 regular season. The Tigers still hope to get on buses again this year, of course, and heading into this week, there are still scenarios that get the Tigers into the Ivy League tournament.

At the same time, that math ends should the Tigers, at the very least, not win both of their remaining two games, the one at Harvard and then next Saturday at home against Cornell. Harvard also hopes to earn a spot in the tournament field. There are ways that the Crimson could get in even should Princeton win this game, but that would be making it much more difficult.

Either way, it's a huge game for both. And it's the 84th meeting in a series that dates to the 1882 season. Yes, 1882.

Princeton vs. Harvard
Five Storylines

On a roll
Princeton enters the game having won three straight games, scoring 16, 17 and 24 goals in the process. Even in its most recent loss, back on March 31 against Brown, Princeton scored 13 goals.
Princeton scored 10, 12 and 13 goals in the first half of the last three games, against Stony Brook, Siena and Dartmouth.
With the offensive explosion, Princeton is up to sixth in Division I in scoring offense at 13.45 goals per game. The Tigers averaged 14.7 goals per game last year, second-best in Division I. In the 26 games the last two seasons, Princeton has scored 368 goals, for an average of 14.1 per.

The league race
Princeton is 1-3 in the league. Harvard is 2-2. It's a huge difference.
Should Princeton win out and get to 3-3, it still wouldn't have the tiebreaker against Penn or Brown, both of whom defeated Princeton earlier this season, if one or both of those two also finished 3-3. Penn is 2-3 in the league, with only a game remaining against Dartmouth. Brown, also 2-2, plays Cornell this weekend and Dartmouth next weekend. Princeton needs at least one of Penn or Brown to get to 2-4, which would mean one would have to lose to the Big Green.
Princeton could finish in a multi-team tie for third at 3-3 by defeating Harvard and Cornell, but there are no scenarios in which the tiebreakers would favor Princeton unless Dartmouth defeats Penn or Brown.
A Harvard win over Princeton definitely eliminates the Tigers.

Moving up the charts
Michael Sowers has 48 assists, tied for the Princeton single-season record with Jon Hess (in 1997) and Ryan Boyle (in 2004). For what it's worth, both Hess and Boyle were juniors when they set the record.
Sowers, Boyle and Hess are all tied for 10th among Ivy League players with 48 assists in a season. At his current pace, Sowers would move up to a tie for seventh.
Sowers leads Division I in points per game (6.55) and assists per game (4.36).
The sophomore also has 72 points, which leaves him tied with Jesse Hubbard (in 1996) for fourth at Princeton. Ahead are Hess (74 in 1997), Mike MacDonald (78 in 2015) and Sowers (82 last year as a freshman).
As for as Princeton career records, Sowers is 13th in points with 154 and eighth in assists with 89. This is after 26 caerer games.
Sowers was one of 17 players named to the USILA Player of the Year watchlist this week.

Man up
Princeton has scored 21 man-up goals this season, the most in the Ivy League. The Tigers are at nearly 50 percent converting man-up opportunities, which leaves them eighth in Division I.
As for Harvard, the Crimson rank 44th in Division I in man-down defense, which might seem like a big edge to the Tigers. At the same time, Harvard is the least penalized team in the league, and by a fairly wide margin.

Loose balls
Princeton averaged 33.4 ground balls per game a year ago, and that was with Zach Currier, who had 130 of them all by himself. This year, Princeton is led in ground balls by Sam Bonafede, with 51. Andrew Song is next with 41, and if you add those together you still are 38 short of what Currier had.
Still, even without Currier, Princeton is averaging 32.6, less than one fewer than a year ago.
Princeton ranks first in the Ivy League and eighth in Division I ground balls per game. Harvard ranks 54th in Division I.
Neither team has won more than 50 percent of its face-offs.

Other Princeton notes

* Phillip Robertson made the USILA Team of the Week last week after his 13-goal performance against Siena and Dartmouth. Robertson, who scored the 13 goals on 15 shots, leads Division I in shooting percentage (.630). Robertson has scored 29 goals this season; Michael Sowers has assisted on 17 of them.

* Austin Sims and Riley Thompson both reached 100 career points in the win over Dartmouth. Sims followed that by being drafted by the Atlanta Blaze with the 20th pick of the Major League Lacrosse draft Wednesday night.

* Chris Brown has at least one goal in every game this season and is the only Princeton player this year to do so. He is also seventh all-time in points among Princeton freshman, and he is four points away from moving up to fourth.

* Princeton defeated Harvard 12-9, led by seven goals from Gavin McBride and a goal and five assists from Zach Currier, both of whom have graduated. Michael Sowers had two goals and five assists, and Austin Sims had two goals and an assist. Harvard defeated Princeton 16-12 in Cambridge two years ago; of the 24 goals that Princeton scored against Harvard the last two years, McBride had 11 of them.

* Princeton has two players in double figures in caused turnovers, and both are freshmen. Andrew Song leads the team with 13, while George Baughan is second with 10.

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