Sowers, Cordrey, Robertson Power Princeton Past No. 18/20 Navy 19-11

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The Princeton men's lacrosse team missed some open nets and had Navy goalie Ryan Kern make some point-blank stops in the first five or so minutes of the first meeting between the teams in 15 years, the one that they played Tuesday afternoon at Navy-Marine Corps Stadium.

When Princeton's early three-goal run was answered by back-to-back Navy scores, there was one of two possibilities:
* Navy had weathered the early storm and Princeton would regret its missed chances or
* Princeton was on the verge of a huge day

The answer was B. Princeton was on the verge of a huge day.

Michael Sowers had two goals and seven assists, Emmet Cordrey had five goals and three assists and Phillip Robertson had five goals in his first start of the year to lead Princeton to a decisive 19-11 win over the Midshipmen. The victory evened Princeton's record at 2-2, while Navy fell to 3-2.

Navy came into the game eighth in Division I in scoring defense at 9.0 per game, and Princeton more than doubled that total.

Princeton had lost back-to-back games to Virginia and Johns Hopkins, games in which Princeton had fourth quarter leads that got away. With the quick turnaround to the Navy game, the Tigers got off quickly, scoring three times in the first five minutes - but letting about five more great chances get away on missed layups or great saves from Kern. Then Navy scored twice, giving every sense that this one was going to be tight, only to have Princeton never let up, overwhelming the Mids with great team offense.

Princeton would lead 5-3 after one and 11-5 at intermission. How well did Princeton share the ball? Princeton's first 17 goals were all assisted.

NOTES

* Cordrey tied his career high with eight points, set in the opener against Monmouth this season. The senior started the first three games on attack before moving to midfield in this game, as Robertson made his first start after missing the first two games completely due to injury and then being limited to playing extra man against Hopkins. Robertson, who led Division I in shooting percentage a year ago, missed his first five shots and then scored on five of his final seven.

* Cordrey now has 13 goals and eight assists in four games this season. He had 10 goals and three assists his first three years combined.

* Freshman Jake Stevens had another big day with six ground balls and two caused turnovers. He leads the team with 26 ground balls in four games. His classmate Luc Anderson had four ground balls of his own. Princeton also got three goals and an assist from its other freshman middies, with the first two goals of Will Kusnierek's career, the fourth of the young season from Beau Pederson and an assist from Alexander Vardaro.

* Chris Brown had two goals and four assists - the two goals kept alive his streak of having at least one goal in every game of his career, and the four assists were a career high.

* Defenseman George Baughan had his second career goal, which he got on a great give-and-go with Brown.

* The closest Navy got in the second half was four, at 12-8, but Princeton answered with a Robertson goal off a perfect skip pass from Jamie Atkinson and then goals from Kusnierek and Baughan - both assisted by Brown - to make it 15-8.

* Princeton is at Rutgers Saturday at 1.

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