Princeton Hosts Johns Hopkins In The 89th Meeting Between The Two

PRINCETON VS. JOHNS HOPKINS

Sherrerd Field at Class of 1952 Stadium • Princeton, N.J.
Saturday, March 2, 2019 • noon
Series history Johns Hopkins leads 58-30
Last year Johns Hopkins defeated Princeton 16-9 • March 3, 2018

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The Princeton men's lacrosse team won its first-ever meeting against Johns Hopkins back in the 1890 season, by a score of 3-2. The Tigers would not win another men's lacrosse game for 31 years after that.

On the other hand, Princeton's losing streak was only three when it finally won again in the 1921 season. That's because Princeton dropped its team between 1890 and 1921, other than a game against Lehigh the week after that first Hopkins game and then one game against Lawrenceville Prep the next year and Stevens Tech the year after that.

By the time Princeton and Hopkins played a second time, it was 1930. Since then? The teams would play again in 1931 and 1932, not play from 1933-36 and then play again every year since except for 1944.

The teams meet Saturday (noon) as Hopkins holds a 58-30 edge, though the teams have split the last eight. The 89^th meeting, however, is not about the history of the rivalry. It's about two teams who need a win against a quality opponent.

Princeton vs. Johns Hopkins
Five Storylines

The number behind the blowouts
The combined score of the last three Princeton-Hopkins games has been winning team 51, losing team 23. None of those games was all that close in the second half and the fourth quarter of all three was extended garbage time.

Hopkins won 17-7 three years ago on Homewood Field, with the Tigers on top 18-7 on Sherrerd Field two years ago and the Blue Jays with a 16-9 win last year back on Homewood Field. What was the common denominator?

Face-offs.

Princeton won 17 of 28 face-offs in the game two years ago, including 6 of 8 in a second quarter that saw the Tigers turn a 3-2 game after one into a 10-2 game at halftime. Johns Hopkins returned the favor last year, winning 20 of 28 face-offs in that one after winning 22 of 30 in the game in 2016. Added up, it means that the winning team is 61 for 86 (or 71 percent). Which brings us to …

The wings
Princeton won 48 percent of its face-offs as a team last year and graduated Sam Bonafede, who won 51.4 percent of the 245 he took. Princeton opened its 2018 season by splitting with Monmouth, going 10 for 20, and then getting thumped by Virginia, going 10 for 36.
Through two games this year, Princeton has won 35 of 58 face-offs as a team, which is just better than 60 percent.

Philip Thompson took 16 face-offs a year ago. He's already won 18 through two games this year – on 31 attempts, which is a .581 percentage. Jack-Henry Vara won 43 percent of his 76 attempts a year ago; he's 13 for 20 this year so far.

Princeton ranks 12^th in Division I in face-off winning percentage so far in 2019 after finishing 37^th a year ago (Hopkins, at .435, is currently 50^th, but that includes games against the No. 2, 20 and 29 FOGOs in the Division I). So why the difference?

Well, it's due to the improvement that Thompson and Vara have shown. And it's also a sign of Princeton's wing play, especially from freshman Jake Stevens.

Through two games, Princeton has 35 face-off wins, and Stevens has had a groundball on 14 of them – an astonishing 40 percent. In fact, Stevens leads all non-face-off men in Division I with eight ground balls per game. Fellow freshman Luc Anderson has also been an immediate factor on face-offs, and Princeton has often used the two shortsticks on the wings together.

More ground balls
Princeton leads Division I in ground balls per game at 44 per after picking up 88 in two games. Last year Princeton averaged 31.2 ground balls per game, which was good for 11^th in the country.

Through two games, that's nearly 13 more per game.

Princeton has two players in double figures – Jake Stevens with 16 and George Baughan with 11 – and a total of seven players with at least five. In all, there are 21 different players who have at least one ground ball through two games.

Aw shoot
Princeton took 55 shots against Virginia last week, with 35 of them on goal. It took a Sherrerd Field-record 24 saves from UVa freshman goalie Patrick Burkinshaw to keep the Tigers to just 11 goals in the 12-11 OT setback

Michael Sowers shot 4 for 9 in the game, which meant the rest of the team was a combined 7 for 46.

Clear it
Princeton ranks 44^th in Division I in clearing percentage and was hurt by six failed clears against UVa. The Tigers have improved in the early going over last year, when Princeton finished 65^th in clearing percentage.

Other notes

* Michael Sowers is one of five players in Division I to have played at least 20 career games and have at least one point in every game of his career. In fact, Sowers, who has five goals and five assists in two games against Hopkins, has at least two in every game of his career. A year after leading Division I in points per game and assists per game, Sowers on the young season is averaging 6.5 points per game, currently fourth in the country, and his 3.5 assists per game are currently fifth. Sowers, who has played 30 games, is already ninth all-time at Princeton in career points with 178, four away from Dave Heubeck for eighth and 69 away from Kevin Lowe's career record of 247.

* Chris Brown has at least one goal in every game of his career, which is now at 15 games. That streak is currently tied for the 11^th longest in Division I, and the only sophomore ahead of Brown is Duke's Joe Robertson, the brother of Princeton attacakman Phillip Robertson.

* Princeton currently ranks 55^th in Division I in man up offense. Johns Hopkins ranks third in Division I in man down defense.

* Princeton has four players with either six or seven goals, and two of them have already exceeded their 2018 season totals. Emmet Cordrey leads the Tigers with seven after having six last year as a junior. Charlie Durbin has six, including tying his career high with four against Virginia last week, after missing all of 2018 with an injury. Chris Brown and Michael Sowers also have six goals.

* Arman Medghalchi has started 28 straight games on defense.

* Princeton is playing the first of three game in eight days, with a Tuesday trip to Navy and then a game at Rutgers March 9.

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