Tigers offensive clicks in final Ivy tune-up
By: Justin Feil
The Princeton University men’s lacrosse team probably is just as strong defensively as it looked in a 17-3 win over Bellarmine at Class of 1952 Stadium on Saturday.
It’s probably not as good as it looked offensively against the Knights, but the Tigers know they are better than the team that scored just six goals apiece in losses to Johns Hopkins and the University of Virginia.
"Today we just shot the ball a lot better than we have been shooting," said PU attack Tommy Davis, who had a goal and three assists. "We went through the offense and got opportunities and we actually scored on them today better than we did in previous games.
"We had some good hard practices this week," he added. "We got some stuff put in. We got very comfortable with everything this week. I think that translated today onto the field."
Princeton has scored a combined 50 goals in three of their wins over lesser opponents. The Tigers scored just six apiece in one-goal losses to Hopkins and Virginia, then needed just five goals thanks to stellar defense to top Hofstra, 5-4, in the week leading up to Bellarmine.
"It’s easier to come out to practice coming off a win just because everyone’s morale is up," said Davis, whose goal with eight seconds left in regulation beat Hofstra. "But that only plays a factor in the beginning of the week. As the week goes on, you have to head through the same thing every week to be successful. I think we did a good job this week in practice of coming out and working hard and just doing what we needed to do. It worked out for us."
Princeton scored the first 10 goals of the game against Bellarmine. Peter Trombino finished with four goals and Mark Kovler had three goals. Scott Sowanick and Alex Haynie had two goals apiece. Six different players scored for the Tigers as they improved to 4-2 heading into Saturday’s 1 p.m. game at Yale.
"I think we make more out of this game than we need to make out of it," said PU head coach Bill Tierney. "The same shots that go in the corners today are the same shots you take against Hopkins and Virginia and Cornell, but there’s something mental going on. Why are we so relaxed today without being cocky? There was no reason to be. This team was 9-8 with Brown. We beat Hofstra, 5-4.
"We’re enjoying it. It was a great win. Everybody played. It’s the end of spring break. We’re all happy about all that good stuff, but what we’re trying to sell to these guys is it’s all mental. Before the game, I read them the quote from David Morrow from (the game program) story. It’s 90 percent mental. If they get over that hump, we’re going to be a perfectly good team."
The Tigers so far have relied largely on their defense, which has allowed less than six goals per game. It’s a defense that Davis and his offensive mates have gotten to know well in practice.
"It’s very tough to go against the defense," Davis said. "Just going against them in practice makes us a better team offensively. A lot of times, we don’t face defenses as strong as the one we’re playing against (in practice). Especially our goalies are great. It’s hard to get shots by them. That helps us a lot."
The sophomore attack asserts that the Tiger defense is as good as advertised. And with that defense backing up their play, Princeton should be in every game. Davis is part of an offense that is trying to make the difference in a few more wins.
"It’s good to have that," Davis said. "They’re going to keep us in a lot of games that are going to be close. At the same time, we need to produce goals for them. They’re holding their end of the bargain so we have to pull our weight and put goals in the back of the net to support them.
"A game like this gives us a lot of confidence in what we’re doing. A lot of times this year, especially coming off tough one-goal losses, confidence has been down in the past. This just reassures us. I think it’s what we needed. Once you get your confidence going, you get rolling and hopefully it just improves your overall play."
The Tigers will need their top efforts at both ends of the field Saturday in New Haven, Conn. They will be facing a Yale team that will be looking to upset a Tiger team that has put together back-to-back wins for the first time this season.
"You can’t wish for things that you don’t have," Tierney said. "You could say, I wish we had Hopkins, I wish we have Virginia. Maybe you win one of those and you lose to Hofstra. We’re 4-2. We could be in a better spot, but I think our guys are on-guard right now.
"We lost to Yale two years ago up there. We start the Ivy League. We know how important that is. You don’t beat Hopkins or Virginia, you know you have to scrap for every opportunity to get into the tournament. The Ivy League is our next opportunity."
And the Tigers will need their best offensively and defensively. The defense is shaping up nicely under coach Greg Raymond for Princeton, while the offense has all the tools in place to be hard to stop. The Tigers already have 19 different players with goals this season. Tierney expected that sort of balance from this year’s team.
"You hope. You really do," he said. "I guess Peter had a big day today. We just said to them inside, the one thing we’ve got to do if you’re going to be champion is not worry about who scores the goals. Understand that it’s the work on Wednesday and Thursday during the week that gets us the goals. As long as we score the goals, we’re going to be fine because that’s our Achilles heel right now can we score goals? Today we did. This isn’t Virginia or Hopkins or Cornell, but I think we’re getting better there and we just have to keep showing that."
Davis leads the team in scoring despite missing the win over Rutgers. Eight players have at least seven points for the Tigers.
"Our team this year, anybody on the field is going to be able to score goals so you just have to play as a team," Davis said. "Six guys work as one instead of one superstar taking over a game. We don’t really have that one guy. We’ll be best when we have six people all with the ability to score goals. That helps your placement on the field. You don’t have to be in specific spots. Where you are, you have to make plays.
"We have a ton of depth on our team. We knew that coming in because we have a lot of guys from last year that got a lot of playing time. We’ve just worked on playing as a team. That’s our main goal. That’s going to open up guys like Peter to get shots when other guys carry the ball. He’s doing a great job finishing. Now we have different guys with different roles. Pretty much everyone is capable of doing a little bit of everything."
The Tigers hope to continue to ride the momentum of Saturday’s big win. They have to keep their focus on Yale, not on the game after, the one against Syracuse that will be played in Princeton Stadium and telecast on ESPN U.
"You can’t look forward," Davis said. "Nowadays, any team can beat you. If we look forward to Syracuse, we can get beat by Yale. I don’t think we’re focusing too much on Syracuse. Obviously, you know it’s there looming, but right now the focus is on Yale."
And for the Princeton offense, the focus is on continuing to produce more outings like Saturday’s explosion. Seventeen goals may be too many to expect, but more than six is certainly reasonable from a talented group.
"In other games, we’ve gotten a ton of opportunities," Davis said. "We haven’t capitalized on them as well as we did today. We just have to keep working on that stuff in practice and hopefully get it done in the future, every other game we play."

