Wiedmaier, lax win vs. Orange
By Justin Feil, Assistant Sports Editor
Two rivalries clashed on Saturday, and Chad Wiedmaier came out a winner in both.
Minutes after helping the Princeton University men’s lacrosse team top Syracuse, 12-8, in the inaugural Big City Classic on Saturday, the freshman defender learned that former Delbarton School team topped Mountain Lakes, 9-8, earlier that day.
”The second the game ended,” Wiedmaier said, “I saw some younger kids who went to Delbarton and I asked them if we won, and they told me, by one goal.”
Wiedmaier hated to miss the Delbarton game, but if there was any game to miss it for, it was to play in the Princeton-Syracuse game. More than 22,000 fans came to see the No. 5 Tigers hand the No. 2 Orange their second loss of the season.
”For me, it’s my first game against Syracuse,” Wiedmaier said. “It isn’t as much of a rivalry in me as it is in the older kids on our team. But having that entire Delbarton vs. Mountain Lakes rivalry prepared me for what the atmosphere would be like. It was just that much bigger, being in a pro football stadium and with all those people.
”Having all those people there, having all that hype, I had trouble catching my breath in the first minute. Not because I was tired, but because of my nerves.”
Wiedmaier caught his breath in time to effectively help shut down All-America attack Kenny Nims. He finished with just two goals. Princeton held Syracuse scoreless for nearly 15 minutes to span from the end of the third quarter to most of the fourth quarter to pull away. Jack McBride and Mark Kovler both had three goals apiece and Tyler Fiorito made 15 saves for Princeton.
”It’s a huge win,” said PU head coach Bill Tierney, whose squad improved to 8-1. “Any time you can beat those guys, you take it.
”Tyler played great in the goal. He made 15 saves and did some really good things. That helped. It was a huge part of what we were doing. A lot went well. We shot well. We kind of did what we had to do. It was very businesslike. One of keys was not to let them make a run. I don’t think they had more than two in a row. I was happy with the overall performance.”
Tierney has been thrilled with the way that Fiorito and Wiedmaier have filled in for departed All-Americas Dan Cocoziello and Alex Hewitt. The former Delbarton duo was replaced by Fiorito, a McDonough School graduate, and Wiedmaier, who is one of four Delbarton graduates playing for the Tigers.
”When we got Danny, we said, there’ll never be another Danny,” Tierney said. “Now we’re saying, there’ll never be another Chad. We love what (Delbarton coach) Chuck Ruebling does up there with his team. The kids have done well for us. We love to get a Delbarton kid.”
Said Wiedmaier: “I never thought of myself as replacing Dan. He was one of my idols at Delbarton and then at Princeton. You can never replace Dan. He’s his own player. I remember thinking about him when I was thinking of my jersey number. Coach (Dave Metzbower) said, you can have No. 1, so I could have had Dan’s number. I wanted my own number. In my own way, I decided it’d be cool to replace him, but I want to be my own defenseman. If I could be as successful as Danny, I’d obviously do that.”
He’s off to a good start. In addition to helping shut down Nims, he also held Johns Hopkins’ Steven Boyle to one goal earlier this season.
”Once I found out I was playing on the starting defense, not to sound cocky or arrogant, but I never felt nervous,” Wiedmaier said. “Chris Peyser and Jeremy Hirsch are two of the nicest guys. I’m sure it’s the same for Tyler — they’re not just good as players, but as guys. It’s like playing with your older brothers.”
Wiedmaier credits the Tigers’ senior leadership with helping to bring him along quickly. It has Tierney feeling comfortable about his defense, even his new starters.
”When you talk about Tyler and Chad replacing Danny and Alex, the other thing is the other guys have grown a year,” Tierney said. “Chris Peyser, Jeremy Hirsch, Charlie Kolkin and Josh Lesko, all those guys playing back there have experience. When we look to next year, not that I am, we will have lost a heck of a lot.
”But, in essence, I didn’t think it would be this good, this early. I have confidence in this group. Our senior leadership is very, very good.”
Tierney is looking for leadership tonight as Princeton begins a five-game stretch of Ivy League opponents to finish the regular season. They play at Penn tonight, hoping to start their Ivy run as they did last year with a win but hoping to finish better.
”They had a chance to go to the playoffs and blew it,” Wiedmaier said, “and I know every upperclassman on the team, I know there’s nothing else on their minds than beating every Ivy team to win the championship. I know no one on this team is going to take anyone for granted. Tuesday night, it’s a tough rebound game going down to Penn. Coach Tierney put it into words, he said this game, it shows the dawning of the next part of our season.”
Added Tierney: “It’s the quintessential trap game. You’re coming off such an emotional big event win. Then, it’s a Tuesday. That’s abnormal as it is. It’s Penn. It’s an Ivy League game, and they just had a good win over Dartmouth. I’m really worried about this one.”
It won’t have the crowd of Saturday’s Big City Classic, but ultimately, it’s just as important for the Tigers to win it and remain on course for an NCAA tournament berth.
”We saw if we play with that amount of energy and finally have the focus with the energy we had, we all saw it and felt it out on the field,” Wiedmaier said. “We have this confidence now.”

