Senior’s goals lift Tigers to OT win, Final Four berth
By: Bob Nuse
With the game on the line, there was no better place for the Princeton University men’s lacrosse team to turn than to Ryan Boyle.
Trailing by two goals with less than two minutes to play in Saturday’s NCAA tournament quarterfinal against Maryland, Boyle scored twice to get the Tigers into overtime. In the extra session, the senior assisted freshman Peter Trombino on the game-winning goal that put the Tigers into the Final Four for the 10th time.
"The thought that this might be the end of my career never entered my mind," Boyle said after the game. "There is always more time than you think. When you’re desperate, you can get a lot of shots off. You never want to have to make an all-or-nothing move, but at the end, I had no choice. Luckily, it was all, not nothing."
Sixth-seeded Princeton trailed, 8-6, when Boyle got the Tigers within a goal with 1:55 left. Princeton won the ensuing face-off and missed on three shots, before Maryland regained control of the ball. After a missed Maryland shot with 30 seconds left, Princeton got the ball back and Boyle tied the game with 12 seconds left.
In overtime, Trombino took a pass from Boyle and scored the game-winner to send the Tigers to the national semifinals for the first time since 2002.
Princeton will face second-seeded Navy at 11:30 a.m. Saturday at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore. The second game of the semifinal doubleheader will be pit top-seeded Johns Hopkins against No. 4 Syracuse. The championship game will be played Monday at 2:30 p.m. in Baltimore.
"Anybody who doesn’t know the size of Ryan Boyle’s heart hasn’t been around this guy for the last four years," Princeton coach Bill Tierney said. "Every day there is another amazing thing that he does. Teams have started to say that they weren’t going to let Ryan beat them with assists, so he has changed his style of play and now he’s been more aggressive and is scoring goals to beat teams.
"Ryan is just an amazing player. He can do so many things on the lacrosse field, but the most impressive thing about him is his heart and his desire to win."
Princeton has now won four straight games since an overtime loss to Cornell. In fact, it was that loss to Cornell that might have set the stage for the Tigers’ win on Saturday.
"I’m not a real believer that you learn from losses, but I just changed my mind," Tierney said. "When we played Cornell, we were down 11-8 with two minutes left and we scored three goals to tie it. You find in these situations that you know you’re OK when the huddle is pretty under control. I thought the guys were listening."
With the win, Princeton is now 6-1 in NCAA tournament games that have been decided in overtime. The Tigers also improved to 19-3 in tournament games that have been decided by one or two goals. Princeton also held off an improbably start to overtime, when Maryland started a man-up for 29 seconds and had the ball due to a holding penalty with one second left in regulation.
"This isn’t about coaching," Tierney said. "You hope that the legacy part of the program is imparted on the young guys, and they find a way to get it done. Princeton kids never say die and try to find a new way. We go a man down starting overtime. I’ve never seen that before. I thought I had seen everything, but that was a new one for me."
But being in the national semifinals is nothing new for Tierney or the Tigers. Princeton is back for the 10th time, having already won six national titles. This weekend, title No. 7 is within reach.
"We always make it exciting," Boyle said. "If we get to overtime, good things usually happen."