By Justin Feil, Assistant Sports Editor
Alex Rifkin expected to be a big part of the offense for the Princeton High School boys lacrosse team this season, but it took a while to know the best way to do it.
”I expected to be someone that the coaches could count on in clutch situations,” said the PHS senior. “I still feel I could do more. I’m working really hard, but I feel like I could perform more and do more for my teammates.”
The Little Tigers lost their first four games of the year and the offense struggled mightily. Rifkin wasn’t producing the way that he wanted, and PHS was struggling. In four games, they managed just 18 goals.
”The coaches were on me at the beginning of the season for maybe not always thinking pass first, and thinking shoot first,” Rifkin said. “That was the wrong way to go about it.”
Rifkin was looking for a big finish to his scholastic career, and he was open to change. After scoring one goal in the first four games, the offense started to come, and so did the wins. While winning five of their last six games, the Little Tigers have gotten 25 points from Rifkin, including a three-goal, six-assist game in a 16-8 win over West Windsor-Plainsboro North, a team that beat the Little Tigers in their first meeting of the year.
”I knew I had to change my game to help my team,” Rifkin said. “That North game was the culmination for all of us. It showed us that teamwork is going to work, that’s how we’re going to win games.”
The biggest win in their recent stretch came Tuesday when PHS knocked off Hopewell Valley, 8-2. It’s just the second loss of the season for Hopewell, while the Little Tigers are back to .500 at 5-5.
”The fact that it was a rivalry game and the fact we lost to them the first game of the season, it meant a lot to our guys to get the victory,” said Rifkin, who had three goals and an assist. “We were all generally very confident. We know we’ve grown a lot in the last few weeks. We knew Hopewell was expecting us to be the same team we were the first time. We knew we needed this one. We were very confident.”
Elliot Wilson made 11 saves, Kirby Peck had three assists, Nick Sandford had three goals, Colman Preziosi had two goals and an assist and Kevin Halliday had an assist.
”Today was the first time in over 30 games that Kirby Peck did not score a goal, but he had three assists,” said PHS head coach Peter Stanton. “The last time we played them, they keyed on him being a dodger and today he was a feeder and it really confounded him. Guys have learned to play together.”
The Little Tigers hadn’t beaten a team with a winning record in their first four wins, but when they topped Hopewell it opened their eyes to their potential.
”Today definitely is a big booster of confidence to be able to achieve some of our goals, like competing well in the county and state tournament,” Stanton said. “Nothing has come easily to us this year. It’s all been through our players’ hard work, because of that, every win has been satisfying.”
The year started a lot slower than Rifkin would have expected, but it wasn’t that unfamiliar. Last year, they lost three of their first four games before coming around to reach the Mercer County Tournament final.
”Personally, I had really high expectations for this year,” Rifkin said. “When we didn’t have success in the first few games, I was ready to turn it around. Last year, our team started very similarly and ended up improving and winning the CVC and making the county final. I’m very pleased that it’s come together and not been what it was at the beginning of the year.
”I think we knew we always had the talent,” he added. “A lot of our seniors and upperclassmen were a little too selfish and too cocky. We learned to share the ball. We learned we’re going to win games by sharing the ball, not dodging and going through three guys. We’ve learned that and that’s why we’ve had the success recently.”
Rifkin counts himself among the players that were too selfish early in the year.
”Early in the season, we were very inexperienced,” Stanton said, “and sometimes it’s a matter of guys trying too hard and maybe trying to do a little too much on their own. What we’ve learned in the past couple weeks, a big theme of Coach (Chip) Casto, is let’s have the ball do the work. We’ve been passing the ball so much better. Early in the season, we relied heavily on guys dodging. In the last few games, we’re getting lots of assist. In the West Windsor North game, 13 of our 16 goals were assisted.”
Rifkin had a big hand in it with six assists. The assists may not be how he was envisioning leading the team, but his willingness to share the ball has gone a long way in convincing his teammates to do the same.
”He’s been the driving force for us,” Stanton said. “In addition to really understanding the benefits of moving the ball and distributing, he’s improved his defense and gotten a lot better at riding. He’s become a more complete midfielder.”
The Little Tigers can’t point to one single thing that turned things around, but as a team t they are much different than in the beginning of the season.
”It was always there,” Stanton said. “The interesting thing about sports is the difference between success and failure is so small and so slight and so subtle. You never know quite what it is that sets off a switch. We do a lot of different things. We watch a lot of film. We spend time in the classroom. We talk guys up and get their confidence going and get them to believe in themselves. We throw everything at our guys and hope something sticks.”
The Little Tigers are happier with the way they’ve been playing recently, but they haven’t stopped thinking of ways they can improve. One thing they’ve been harping on is not relying on the same players every game.
”We’ve been running a lot of guys through to see what they can do,” Rifkin said. “We need to get more guys contributing. If they can get up to where they need to be, and the seniors are included, they need to play up to where the coaches and they are expecting, we can improve. Everyone needs to step up their roles.”
Rifkin is more hopeful of the sort of ending he was expecting to his high school career. He’s headed to Maryland, where he hopes to play on the club team. First, though, he’s looking to keep the Little Tigers rolling toward a fine finish.
”We really feel great about what we have going here,” Rifkin said. “We started to lose a little confidence in the first few weeks. A lot of guys felt like it would be a failure of a season. As we started to get going, our confidence went up. We can’t wait to go to Notre Dame game and avenge another loss.”
