Princeton Hosts Cornell On Senior Day

Photo by: Beverly Schaefer

April 26, 2018 | Men's Lacrosse

PRINCETON (7-5, 2-3) vs. CORNELL (10-3, 4-1)

Shererd Field at Class of 1952 Stadium • Princeton, N.J.
Saturday, April 28, 2018 • 1 p.m.
Series history Princeton leads 41-38-2
Last year Cornell defeated Princeton 18-17

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The best rivalry in Ivy League men's lacrosse history plays out for the 82nd time as Princeton hosts Cornell. The Tigers enter the game with an edge of 41-38-2 in the all-time series.
As is the case with most Princeton-Cornell games, there's a lot on the line for both teams and, at the same time, even if there was nothing at stake, it would still be a big one.
Cornell knows its season will continue beyond this week. Princeton is hoping its will as well. Cornell knows that it still has a shot at a share of the Ivy title and would love to play at home in the NCAA tournament; Princeton would love to prevent both.

Princeton vs. Cornell
Five Storylines

The Ivy League tournament
Regardless of what happens on Sherrerd Field between Princeton and Cornell, the Big Red will be locked into the No. 2 seed in the Ivy League tournament.
Princeton, on the other hand, is playing its best lacrosse of the season and hoping to extend its season into May. At the same time, Princeton cannot get into the Ivy League tournament unless Dartmouth beats Brown.
In fact, Princeton finds itself in the rather odd situation of knowing there are scenarios whereby it could lose to Cornell and get into the Ivy tournament or beat Cornell and not get into it.
If you don't want to simply leave it at that, then you can read this:
* should Yale beat Harvard and Dartmouth beat Brown, then Princeton would be in win or lose.
* should Princeton beat Cornell and Dartmouth win, then Princeton would also be in.
In addition there's the Ivy League race itself. Cornell could still get a share of the Ivy League championship with a win over Princeton and a Yale loss to Harvard.

Series history
Princeton and Cornell have combined to win 56 Ivy League championships (Cornell with 29, Princeton with 27). Brown is third, with 10.
Princeton and Cornell are also the only two Ivy League schools ever to win an NCAA championship, something Cornell has done three times and Princeton has done six times.
Since the first Ivy men's lacrosse champion was crowned in 1956, there have only been 12 years - just 12 - when neither Princeton nor Cornell won at least a share of the championship.

Sizzling
Princeton and Cornell are a combined 8-0 in the month of April (both are 4-0). The average score of those eight games is Princeton/Cornell 16.4, Opponents 9.5
The difference in their seasons is the last three games of March, when Princeton went 0-3 against Penn, Yale and Brown while Cornell defeated Penn, Air Force and Dartmouth and reached at least 20 goals each time. Cornell enters the game against Princeton having actually won seven straight.

Scoring offense
If you remember the game from a year ago, then you know that a lot of goals were scored. As in 35 of them, as Cornell defeated Princeton 18-17.
This game doesn't figure to be 6-5 either.
Both of these teams rank in the top five nationally in scoring offense, with Cornell at No. 1 at 15.15 goals per game and Princeton fifth at 13.58.
Between them they're reached at least 15 goals 14 times in 24 combined games and 20 goals four times.
The teams also get an extremely high number of their goals from assists. In fact they are 1-2 in the country in percentage of goals that are assisted, with Princeton first at 69.9 percent and Cornell second at 69.5 percent.
And that brings us to ...

Sowers and Teat
It is not fair to say that this game is Michael Sowers against Jeff Teat. The two are not going up against each other directly, after all.
Having said that, the two sophomore attackmen - both of whom are on both the USILA's 17-player list for National Player of the Year and the Tewaaraton Award's 25-man nominee list - are doing incredible things to the record books at both schools, and they are on pace to do even more.
Sowers, who stands 5-8, and Teat, listed at 5-10, lead all current Division I players in average points per game in a career (Teat first at 6.12, Sowers second at 5.96). Only four players in Division I have averaged more points per game for a career than those two numbers, and nobody has done so since 1981. That's how historic these two have been.
They are 7th (Sowers) and 9th (Teat) in career assists among active Division I players - keep in mind they are sophomores.
The Ivy League record for points in a career is 352, set by Cornell's Rob Pannell. The only other Ivy League players ever to reach 300 career points are Brown's Dyland Molloy (318) and Darren Lowe (316).
Sowers has 161 career points. Teat has 159. That is before the end of their sophomore years. Obviously they both figure to be in the hunt for the record.
As for this year, they've gone back and forth between the top two spots in Division I in points per game and assists per game. Right now it's Teat-Sowers in points and Sowers-Teat in assists.
Speaking of Sowers, he ranks first and second in points in a season at Princeton, with 82 last year and 79 this year. His 95 career assists rank sixth all-time at Princeton, and he is five away from joining Kevin Lowe, Ryan Boyle and Jon Hess as the only Princeton players ever to reach 100 in a career. His 161 career points are already 12th all-time at Princeton, and he would move into the top 10 with three more.
In the last 27 years, since Princeton's first NCAA championship back in 1992, a player with 45 points in a season would have been first or second on the team 22 times and first 11 times, including in three of the NCAA championship seasons.
Sowers?
He has 45 points in his last five games alone.

Other Princeton Notes

* The Cornell game will be Senior Day for Princeton's nine seniors: Tyler Blaisdell, Sam Bonafede, J.T. Caputo, Braedon Gait, Greg Merrill, Drew O'Connell, Austin Sims, Riley Thompson and Daniel Winschuh.

* Phillip Robertson has gone from three goals last year to 31 this year, an improvement of 28 goals. That matches the jump Gavin McBride made from 2016 (26 goals) to 2017 (school-record 54 goals). Going back, Mike MacDonald improved by 29 goals from 2014 (19) to 2015 (48) and Jesse Hubbard improved from 23 in 1995 to 53 in 1996. Jason Doneger had nine goals in 2001, did not play in 2002 and then had 41 in 2003.

* Chris Brown, the reigning Ivy Rookie of the Week, is fourth all-time at Princeton in freshman scoring with 37 points (22G, 15A). He trails only Michael Sowers (82 points), Kevin Lowe (55 points) and Ryan Boyle (53). Brown is also the only player on the team with at least one goal in every game this year.

* Princeton is led in caused turnovers by two freshmen: Andrew Song (14) and George Baughan (12).

* Luke Crimmins had no points in the first seven games of the year. He has seven goals and an assist since, with his first three-point game last week against Harvard (2G, 1A).

* Tyler Blaisdell is fourth nationally in saves per game with 12.42. He made 18 last week against Harvard, giving him five games this year of at least 16 saves. Blasidell has played 2,596 minutes in goal for Princeton and has started every game dating to the middle of his freshman year.

* Cookie Krongard '61 was a first-team All-America goalie as a senior, a two-time first-team All-Ivy League selection and a 1985 inductee into the US Lacrosse Hall of Fame. Now well into his 70s, Krongard is still a fixture in the annual Princeton men's lacrosse alumni games (left with current assistant coach Jeremy Hirsch), still stepping into the cage and facing the hardest shots from alums less than half his age. Today at halftime Cookie will be recognized for his generosity to the program as Princeton lacrosse officially names its team room the "Cookie Krongard Team Room."