Sowers Ties 25-Year-Old School Record For Career Points As Tigers Win, Stay Alive In ILT Chase

Saturday, April 20

Princeton, N.J.

1:00 PM

Princeton University

7-6, 2-3Ivy

Harvard

5-7, 1-4Ivy

Harvard

Princeton University

Michael Sowers celebrates the goal that tied the Princeton career record of 247 points during the Tigers' 19-15 win over Harvard.

Photo by: Shelley M. Szwast

Sowers Ties 25-Year-Old School Record For Career Points As Tigers Win, Stay Alive In ILT Chase

April 20, 2019 | Men's Lacrosse

Box Score

On any other day, we'd be starting out talking about what Princeton needs to do next week to reach the Ivy League tournament, something that includes the rather strange fact that the Tigers are now hurt by not losing to Brown earlier this year by MORE.

This isn't any other day, though. This is a day that has been 25 years in the making.

Michael Sowers had three goals and seven assists to lead Princeton to a 19-15 win over Harvard on Sherrerd Field Saturday afternoon in a game that most definitely kept Princeton alive in the Ivy tournament chase heading into next Saturday's regular-season finale at Cornell. Chris Brown tied his career high with five goals, while Harvard's Kyle Anderson had a career-high seven of his own.

With his 10 points, Sowers moved to 247 for his career, tying the school record held by Hall-of-Famer Kevin Lowe since the day he scored his final point in overtime against Virginia in the 1994 NCAA championship game. That's 25 years of chasing down a record that finally was matched by the 5-9 junior. Yeah. Junior.

Michael Sowers has his 247th career point to tie the ALL-TIME Princeton record! ??https://t.co/23vpB2PUTG pic.twitter.com/15Rwiu4AaI
— Princeton Lacrosse (@TigerLacrosse) April 20, 2019

Sowers needed just 41 games to reach 247 points, compared to the 60 that it took Lowe, who is one of the greatest lacrosse players of all-time. Sowers needed just those 41 games to reach the mark that had withstood the challenge of players like Ryan Boyle, Jesse Hubbard, Jon Hess and Tom Schreiber - and every other Princeton men's lacrosse player who's ever worn the uniform.

Is that not enough Sowers for you?

In addition to that record, Sowers also now has 82 points on the season, which is tied for second-best at Princeton (with his total of his freshman year), one point behind the record (which he set a year ago). In other words, Sowers now sits 1-2-3 on Princeton's single-season scoring chart. He also has 52 assists this year, second-best at Princeton - trailing only his 56 a year ago.

Lastly, he now has 98 career goals (and 149 career assists). With two more goals, he'd become the first Princeton player and sixth Ivy League player to reach 100 goals and 100 assists. Or seventh, since Cornell's Jeff Teat also has 98 career goals and already has 135 career assists.

So that's Sowers.

Then there's the Ivy tournament situation.

Princeton is now 2-3 in the league, tied with Brown, one game back of Cornell. Princeton cannot get into the ILT without beating Cornell next week, but from there it gets a little complex, and somewhat surreal.

If Princeton beats Cornell and Dartmouth beats Brown, then Princeton is in. If Brown beats Dartmouth and Princeton beats Cornell, then Princeton, Cornell and Brown would all be 3-3 in the league, including 0-2 against Penn and Yale, 2-0 against Harvard and Dartmouth and 1-1 against each other. The next tiebreaker then would be goal-differential head-to-head among the three.

So far, Princeton has a four-goal loss to Brown, while Cornell defeated Brown 12-9 Saturday. Those two results have Cornell at plus-three, Brown at plus-one and Princeton at minus-four. After goal-differential breaks the tie for third, then head-to-head decides who would get fourth.

As a result of all of that, Princeton needs to defeat Cornell by at least three goals to push Brown ahead of Cornell in goal-differential, giving the Bears the third spot and then the Tigers the fourth by virtue of what would have to be a head-to-head win over Cornell. The strange part is that had Princeton lost to Brown by more, then it would have to defeat Cornell by less.

We miss anything?

Oh yeah. The Princeton-Harvard game was a wild one, with 95 combined shots, 94 combined ground balls and 41 combined turnovers. Both teams reached double figures by halftime, when the Tigers led 13-10.

Emmet Cordrey had a five-point game with two goals and three assists, while Charlie Durbin had a three-goal afternoon. Mike Morean, a shortstick defensive middie, had two goals, one assist, three ground balls and one caused turnover, while Cathal Roberts and his brother Aran Roberts - as well as George Baughan and David Sturtz - caused two turnovers each.

Andrew Song had one caused turnover and seven more ground balls to go over 100 for his career (the sophomore now has 101). Erik Peters made 13 saves and also had an assist.