Gianforcaro Leads Princeton Past Penn, Into Ivy Final

Friday, May 5

New York

8:30 PM

Princeton University

7-6

Penn

7-6

PRINCETON

PENN

Photo by: Sideline Photos, LLC

Gianforcaro Leads Princeton Past Penn, Into Ivy Final

May 06, 2023 | Men's Lacrosse

Box Score

Michael Gianforcaro hugged Erik Peters and honored Cookie Krongard, after joining those two and a long line of Princeton men's lacrosse goalies with an epic performance that will long be remembered.

Knowing that his team's season was over with a loss, Gianforcaro made 15 great saves to lead Princeton to a tight, thrilling 9-8 win over Penn in the second Ivy League semifinal Friday night at Columbia's Wien Stadium. The Tigers now will face Yale, a 22-15 winner over Cornell in the first semifinal, in Sunday's championship game. The league's automatic bid goes to the team that wins.

Princeton and Penn played their second 9-8 game this season, after the Quakers won the Ivy opener for both in overtime back on March 18. Princeton then won four league games by an average of 8.5 goals before falling a week ago at Cornell, also in overtime.

Could Princeton win a close game, and could it do so with its season on the line? The answer was a resounding "Yes," though it was not easy and it wasn't certain until the final seconds. No goals were easy ones in this game, as both goalies were awesome (Penn's Emmet Carroll made 16 saves) and both defenses contested everything. Through it all, Gianforcaro never flinched, making huge save after huge save to keep Penn from pulling away.

Princeton's alumni base was out in force on the New York City Friday night, and among those in the crowd was Peters, who led Princeton to Championship Weekend a year ago. He and Gianforcaro had their hug after the game, and then Gianforcaro mentioned Princeton Hall of Fame goalie Krongard, who passed away the day before at the age of 82. His loss was felt by the entire Tiger program.

Penn scored the first two goals of the game before Princeton answered with the next three, making it 3-2 Tigers midway through the first. The game may have started out resembling the shootout between the teams in 2022, when Princeton defeated Penn 21-20 in overtime, but it didn't stay that way for long.

In fact, from the time Jake Steven scored to make it 3-2 until the end of the third quarter — a span of 37 minutes — Penn outscored Princeton 2-1, as Gianforcaro stood on his head the entire time. It was 4-3 at the half, and Princeton ddd not score in the third quarter. Neither did Penn, at least for the first 14:57, before the Quakers tied it at 4-4 after three.

After those eight goals in the first 45 minutes, there'd be nine in the final 15. Penn took a 6-5 lead with 11 minutes to go, but Princeton tied it on a Jake Stevens extra man goal with 8:55 left. Alexander Vardaro then put Princeton back on top at 7-6 with a low shot past Carroll with 5:58 left, and the lead grew to two when Sean Cameron ripped one 30 seconds later.

There would be no time to exhale, though. Penn got back within one at 8-7, but Christian Ronda built it back to two with three minutes left. Joe Juengerkes caused a turnover and picked up the ground ball to clear it on Penn's next possession, and it looked like the Tigers had it slated away when Penn was called for a push with 1:23 left. Princeton took the shot clock all the way down, and Penn got it back with 24 seconds left. It took 11 seconds to make it a one-goal game, with 13 seconds to go.

With visions of a face-off win and goal to force OT hovering in front of the Tigers, Andrew McMeekin instead won the draw and got it to Beau Pederson, who was slashed with 1.1 seconds left. Jake Stevens hurled the all away on the restart, and the Tigers had themselves a tough, tough win. And a shot at a second-straight NCAA tournament.

Ronda led Princeton with trhee goals and an assist, while Stevens and Coulter Mackesy had two each and Lukas Stanat had two fourth quarter assists. Pace Billings led the defense with three caused turnovers.