PU men’s lacrosse edged by Brown
For the second year in a row, the Princeton University men’s lacrosse team staged a late rally after trailing Brown by five goals, but once again could not move by the Bears in the final minutes.
The ninth-ranked Tigers fell to No. 12 Brown, 10-8, Sunday at Class of 1952 Stadium. It was their first loss to Brown at home since 1991, and the end mirrored in many ways last year’s 11-10 loss in which Princeton put together a late run but could not get over the hump.
”t was a much different game, a much different pace,” said PU head coach Chris Bates after his team slipped to 6-2 overall, 2-1 in the Ivy League. “They got up last year because they really wanted to dominate possession. This year, they don’t care a lot about ball possession.”
Brown has completely changed its offensive approach. The Bears run and run and run, and don’t really every try to slow it down. They got off 45 shots against Princeton, the most that they have given up this year, but the 10 goals they scored was their second lowest output of the game. Credit for that goes to the Tigers’ defense and goalie Eric Sanschagrin, who made 15 saves, one off his career high.
”I thought our game plan going in was good,” Bates said. “It was the pace we wanted to play. We did a good of taking away Dylan Molloy. We did a good job of taking away No. 8 (Kylor Bellistri). They just got us on a handful of transition situations, which we knew was a strength for them, and we only scored eight goals.”
Molloy and Bellistri were the Bears’ top two goal scorers. Molloy came into the game leading the nation, but he was shut out due to a physical effort from Brian Pickup. Pickup is part of a defense that has some different faces than were expected when the year began. The Tigers were supposed to return nine of 10 starters from last season, but they were hit hard by the injury bug at the defensive end. Will Reynolds and Jake Froccaro, both preseason third-team All-Americas, are out for the remainder of the season after playing a total of three games between them. Mark Strabo missed his seventh straight game Sunday, but has been cleared to return to action Monday.
”It gives us a guy with experience and a good voice,” Bates said. “But at the end of the day, our defense played a great game (Sunday). They did their job.”
Despite those losses, the Tigers defense withstood one of its toughest tests of the season Sunday. The Brown offense came in second in the country in scoring at more than 16 goals per game, but the Tigers limited their effectiveness.
”It started on ball with Brian Pickup,” Bates said. “He was a good matchup for that kid and took him out. Coach (Dylan) Sheridan does a great job. Those guys are becoming a good unit.
”We tried to take away transition as best we could. That puts stress on the system — whether it’s early offense or off a faceoff. At the end of the day, it’s a group that has continued to improve each week. We’ll get a little healthier here, but that wasn’t the issue. It wasn’t, we’re missing somebody, it was how the game flowed and our inability to put it in the back of the net.”
While the Tigers saw Brown get off a season-high shot total against them, Princeton’s offense created plenty of chances for itself. The Tigers’ 51 shots was a season-high, but they had trouble solving Brown goalie Jack Kelly for the second straight season. One year after he made 16 saves, he made 15 saves to match Sanschagrin. Princeton came into the game fourth in the country in shooting percentage.
”Their goalie was really strong throughout,” Bates said. “We generated a high volume of shots, we just didn’t put them in the back of the net. That was the difference.
”We hit him a handful of times, but I thought the goalie played obviously well. We generated a high volume of shots, but we didn’t solve him. I thought we started to press a little as a result. Their game plan was good. They had to play solid defense and they made us earn shots.”
Mike MacDonald had three goals to lead the Tigers offense. Ryan Ambler pulled within a point of 100 career points after leading Princeton with three assists. Kip Orban, who was tied with MacDonald for the team lead in goals before Sunday, was held to 0-for-10 shooting. The Tigers are 0-2 when he hasn’t scored this year and 6-0 in games he has scored.
Princeton had also been unbeaten in four games decided by four goals or fewer this season, a sharp turnaround from a year ago when they struggled to win tight games. They lost three one-goal games and a two-goal game in a 2-4 Ivy season a year ago.
”This group is doing all the right things,” Bates said. “They work hard. They believe. I think they stay poised. We preach playing our style of lacrosse and I think they buy into that. One-goal games are a byproduct of that. There may be some luck involved always, but I think you create your own luck with your preparation.
”It’s a tight group that works hard and believes. Even today, right to the end, they believed we could win it. We dug ourselves a little bit of a ditch, but nobody’s panicking. We know we can create opportunities. It’s a group that shares the ball and plays well together, and I think it bodes well going forward down the line.”
Princeton will play its next three games on the road. They play at Stony Brook on Saturday, then play at Lehigh next Tuesday before returning to Ivy play at Dartmouth. Only Cornell (3-0) and Brown (2-0) are unbeaten in Ivy action thus far.
”It’s a day to day process that we’ve focused on,” Bates said. “It’s nice to have been 6-1 coming in. Every Monday, we come in and say it’s time to reset, what’s in the past is in the past and it’s time to build on it, and try to make sure we’re improving and focus on the next opponent and the daily work plan and nothing else. I think that’s served us well.”
Princeton will look to get back to winning. The Tigers did all that they had hoped to Sunday, but just couldn’t shoot the way that they have all season in the loss to Brown.
”I give them credit,” Bates said. “We’d like to play them again. . . tomorrow, if I could. I thought we handled their pressure and were able to play the style that we wanted to.”
