lax @ princeton

This is a huge game, it will basically determine who gets the AQ for the ivies. Princeton boasts an awesome defense that has held a lot of good teams to very few points.

Anyone know if the game is at the football stadium or the lax stadium? I'm heading down to NJ tonight.

Jacob '06
This is a huge game.

Beyond huge. Because Cornell's opponents have gone down the RPI toilet, the consequences of losing this game, as Fred outlined in his lax tourney thread, are grim. With Princeton floating in the RPI top 5, a win could get Cornell much more than an AQ -- it could yield a favorable tournament seeding.

The public and private rhetoric coming from both teams suggests that both sides are out for blood. It shouldn't be a surprise that Princeton has had this game circled for many months. Their all-everything soph defenseman Cocoziello said that last year's loss to Cornell was the most humiliating experience of his life. Yep.

Jacob '06
the football stadium or the lax stadium?

It will be at Class of '52 Stadium, the artificial turf lax facility just south of Palmer Stadium [Edit: Did I really just say Palmer? Not Palmer, Princeton.]

Looks like it could be very wet, with a chance of lightning delays.

Don't let that stop you -- this is worth the trip.

Obviously, Princeton has improved a ton compared to last year. The key to their turnaround has been their play on the defensive side of the field. Their goalie situation has stabilized, with soph Alex Hewit now leading the nation in save percentage (almost 65 percent!). As a team, they're holding opponents to a shot percentage of less than 20. This is a team that held Virginia and Syracuse to 7 goals each and Johns Hopkins to 4 goals.

Princeton's weak links are on offense and at the faceoff X (phew). Even with a transfusion of new midfield talent, led by frosh Mark Kovler (DC) and Tommy Davis (LI), they've still struggled to score in many games. Despite their excellent record, they've allowed more shots than they've taken.

The key could be Cornell's extra-man offense, which has been deadly (50 percent). Unfortunately, they've had few chances to play man-up recently. If Princeton's young defenders are so amped that they lose their heads, maybe Cornell can get a few early extra-man goals.

Can't wait.

Is the Princeton audio feed free? I was able to listen to one of their archived games, but there seems to be no indication either way on their site.

Must see lacrosse. Gotta be there. As of 10 pm in NJ living an hour away, weather didn't look that threatening. On the other hand, we just planted some grass seed, so either way, we come out ahead. I'd prefer it dry in Class of '52 Stadium. The 4,000-seat jewel of a stadium, not the football stadium. 12 noon.

LGR.

Scersk '97
Is the Princeton audio feed free? I was able to listen to one of their archived games, but there seems to be no indication either way on their site.

Yeah, I think it's free.

The audio feed is free: It's being underwritten by the Robertston family foundation (they just don't know it) as Princeton broadly defines supporting the Wilson School mission of preparing students for international service.

[www.post-gazette.com]
"Fight at Princeton escalates over a family's gift"

(Aside and OT: This is a fascinating lawsuit with far-reaching consequences. Basically, if a donor gives money for X, how far afield can the recipient go in stretching the original intent? Princeton appears to have done more than stretch, although in the most egregious finger-in-the-cookie jar instances that came to light, the school says it was unintentional.)

Cornell leads 1-0 after one period (Haswell goal).

2-0, Mitchell 44 seconds into 2nd

Getting a third goal would make a big difference. Good chances but no cigar.

Halftime, 2-0

2-1 45 sec. into 3rd

We are controlling this game but can't get it past Hewitt.

Too many turnovers. Just can't seem to get it into the net.

Hewitt has been absolutely f***in incredible, just save after save after save

2-1 Cornell after 3. Sounded like Cornell dominated play in 3rd with lots of great saves by Hewitt.

No one chatting?

Hewitt has TWELVE SAVES on FOURTEEN SHOTS

Cornell gets the ball back to kill of a man down

Make that 13 of 15

DeltaOne81
Hewitt has TWELVE SAVES on FOURTEEN SHOTS

Cornell gets the ball back to kill of a man down

Sounds like Hewitt and Devine should switch places!

Princeton ties it at 2

Why does this feel like a hockey game against Union or RPI?

3-2 Princeton, Hewitt has 15 of 17 saves

3-2 Princeton. I lost All-access for a couple of minutes and missed two Princeton goals.

YES!! 3-3! Haswell!

YESSSS!!! Mitchell!

4-3 Red!

About 4 minutes left

4-3 Red, Mitchell, 4 minutes left

1 minute to play, Princeton gets the ball but then goes out of bounds

LGR!

Cornell gets their first man up of the game, will last for the remainder of the game, probably will just play keep away...

TO Cornell

jkahn
3-2 Princeton. I lost All-access for a couple of minutes and missed two Princeton goals.

I had to take my dog out and missed the 2 goals. I'm new to lacrosse (courtesy of ELF) and am learning, do not blink.

edit: And I'm still working on my spelling skills
I really need to see a lacrosse game live.

10 seconds

GAME OVER!!

Nice job of keep-away. Game should have been 8-3 or 9-3.

I know we still have a game against Brown, and I don't mean to jinx us, but if games in the NCAA tourney are going to be like this....
I'm going to have a heart attack!

Real good win. Sounds like we played an extremely strong game.

9-8 Hopkins over Navy with 52 seconds left on CSTV.

Surprisingly good write-up on the game at the Princeton athletics web site:

[goprincetontigers.cstv.com]

I didn't realize that it was possible to get a lump in one's throat while reading a game thread - but it happened. Whew. Congrats Red. On to Bruno!

Awesome defense by the Big Red. Awesomer goaltending by Princeton's Alex Hewitt. He was equal parts lucky and good (Tiger fans will probably say more good than lucky). Cornell was the better team but Hewitt came up big and Cornell had a couple unlucky shot-calls. Actually, McMonagle, who was pretty damn good, too, had a couple save-assists from the pipes, including one where - this is from the stands, peering through a slight drizzle - it appeared McMonagle deflected the ball, it popped up, headed goalward, hit the pipe, and bounced away. Phew.

I think the shot count was 32-13 in Cornell's favor and McMonagle had just five saves, but the five were pretty good. A really good goalie got overshadowed by a sophomore having a career game. Or maybe he's that good.

Of minor statistical note, Princeton stud attacker Peter Trombino went pointless for the first time in his three years (I think he's been around forever - really he's just a junior) and without a goal since sometime midway through last season.

A lot of Big Red fans -- fans only, no pep band this time (we missed you' was it a money thing?), but as many or more fans than Princeton could muster (LGR!) -- felt the calls seemed to favor Princeton more so than the law of averages would allow for. The game was pretty penalty-free. Then Cornell caught a couple breaks at the end when Princeton drew a personal foul in the final minute (shades of UNH hockey circa 2003) and then Princeton's best defender, Dan Cocoziello (who is alas only a sophomore and we've got to face him two more years) tried to dissect Joe Boulukos in the waning minute. Cocoziello took one particularly sharp jab and the head flew off his stick ... and he kept on playing, didn't drop the stick, until the referee's flag went sailing up in the air.

Princeton's goalie-out defense was pretty good the last two minutes when Cornell was on attack. And Cornell showed class with an open net in the last 10 seconds and just kept passing around the box rather than roll up the score to 5-3.

I cannot believe a team this disciplined and with such good ball control could allow 8 goals by Pennsylvania.

Bill Tierney was his usual, animated self. The guy's a great coach but maybe he should up the dosage on game day to stay more collected. Still, he's not in the Bob Knight category.

This was as good as college lacrosse gets.

Every time I go into Class of '52 stadium, it reminds me that Princeton has awesome sports facilities that integrate into the campus ... are near the campus ... are well-designed. Cornell OTOH seems intent on pushing athletic facilities closer and closer to Dryden with each passing year. The lax / soccer socceer stadium is just the right size for most events with 4,000 seats, but the stadium is ringed with evergreens (arbor vitae or similar) and flowering plants. There's parking nearby (hello, Cornell). If only Cornell hadn't swiped Lower Alumni Field in the early 1970s for yet another academic building, that could have been our jewel of a facility. Go take a good look at Hoy Field and commit it to memory. When you come back in 10 years, it may look a lot different.

Al DeFlorio
Surprisingly good write-up on the game at the Princeton athletics web site:

[goprincetontigers.cstv.com]

Princeton website has some wonderful pieces about ex players and how they've lived their lives. It's not just Class of '52 Stadium that one-ups Cornell.

It's as if you can have a state-controlled media presence and still be entertaining and informative. Check out this story:

[goprincetontigers.cstv.com]

Moe, Where Did You Go?
After scoring the winning goal in the 1992 NCAA championship game and vanishing for 14 years, Andy Moe reappears
March 10, 2006


Relax. He's not dead. Turns out that was just a rumor. So was the one about how he was living in the Himalayas. Ever hear that one?

Nope. After all that, he's in New York City of all places. Fourteen years without a sound, and he just turns up one night at an alumni function 50 miles from the Princeton campus.

"I walked in," says Princeton men's lacrosse coach Bill Tierney, "and it was like a spotlight was on him. It was a very small, very crowded room, and he was the first person I saw. I turned to Metzy [associate head coach David Metzbower] and said `look, Andy Moe is here.'"

Andy Moe, who scored the biggest goal in Princeton University history and then quite literally vanished, stepped out of his nomadic 14-year walkabout and was there, just like that.

"I guess I dropped out of the loop," Moe says simply.

* * *

Legend has it that when the men's lacrosse team returned to the Princeton campus after winning the 1992 NCAA championship in Philadelphia, Andy Moe went to the bridge on Washington Road and threw all of his lacrosse equipment into Lake Carnegie. Hours earlier, it was Moe who scored a goal 10 seconds into the second overtime to give Princeton a 9-8 win over Syracuse, and legend suggests that throwing the equipment into the water was his statement that he could never top that moment in the game, so why bother trying?

"I have no comment about that," Moe says now with a laugh.

If the legend is true, then gone was his equipment. Days later, Moe was gone too.

And no one knew where. Not his coaches. Not his teammates. Not Mike Kinney, a reporter from the Star-Ledger who set out a few years ago to write a "where-are-they-now" story on Moe and never figured out the answer to that simplest of questions.

In this age of being able to find almost anyone through google or on an expanded email list or through some other database, Andy Moe spent 14 anonymous years living and working in the North, the South and the West.





"I felt a certain degree of wanting to strike out on my own and explore worlds that I had not inhabited before," Moe says.

Moe began his post-college life in Colorado writing a novel that he abandoned when "I realized that my desire to write greatly outweighed my capacity for saying anything meaningful at the time."

After a year, Moe traveled with his girlfriend at the time to Alabama, where he worked as a feature writer for the Montgomery Advertiser. From there it was on to Boston, where he worked as a furniture maker before attending the Massachusetts College of Art to study sculpture for two years.

Next was a return to Colorado as a sculptor. While there, to supplement his income, Moe began to teach Argentine tango for the first time.

"I found that I loved to teach, and I got more and more into that," Moe says. "I was invited to teach in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and from there, I got invited to teach at Triangulo, the only tango studio in New York City. I was there for another year, and then I met someone who would become a spiritual advisor for me and I devoted myself to my own spiritual development. Then, about two years ago, I started writing screenplays and began to make my own furniture."

Today he has his own furniture design business, Moe Design Studio, located in Manhattan, and his website of www.studiomoe.com. His specialty is making custom furniture from reclaimed lumber.

"I just finished making a table," Moe says. "I acquired some red oak beams that had help up a tobacco warehouse in Tennessee, and I converted them to a large, communal dining table for a café in Soho. I love the furniture business. I love to work with my hands. I love that I can work with wood while living in the middle of New York City."

New York City? Who would have thought to look for him there?

Through the years, while Moe was criss-crossing the country, his name has come up on numerous occasions among those associated with Princeton lacrosse. Not once did anyone know where he was.

It only added to the mystique that has always been Andy Moe.

He was recruited to Princeton by Jerry Schmidt, but he never played a game for the man who recruited him. Instead, when he arrived in the fall of 1988 from St. Albans in Washington, D.C., he found himself part of Bill Tierney's first Princeton team.

"Andy's always been his own spirit," says Tierney. "I really didn't know much about him. I'm not sure who he hung around with, but he wasn't a loner. Everyone liked Andy. I never worried about him."

And?

"And he was fast. Very, very fast."

Tierney's first two teams went 2-13 and 6-8, but Moe began to buy into what his new coach was preaching.

"Some of my most vivid memories are of my first two years, especially in the locker room after we'd lose" Moe says. "Tierney would come in and give a speech, a new spontaneous speech every week, just talking about the importance of staying with something, instilling within us what he believed to be the attributes of a winner. For him to do that in the face of continuous losing was an amazing thing. I would say he's easily one of the most inspiring people I've ever had the pleasure of being associated with."

Moe decided to take the 1990 school year off, and the program was in a much different state when he returned. The Tigers made the NCAA tournament for the first time in 1990, and, upon Moe's return, Princeton lost a heartbreaking 14-13 triple-overtime quarterfinal game to Towson at Palmer Stadium. That set the stage for the 1992 season.

"I had the feeling that when he left, lacrosse was very important to him," says Tierney. "We were 2-13 and then 6-8, and I felt that I was responsible for his being discouraged about lacrosse. When we started to win, he was really enthusiastic when he came back. For me, he bought into what we were doing. He got us through a lot of games."

Moe was more than just a player who happened to score a huge goal. He scored 68 goals in his career, 19 as a senior to earn third-team All-America honors. Four of his goals came in the championship game against Syracuse.

"Every experience was new for us," says Moe. "Even getting to the Final Four was a novel experience. I remember very clearly that when I first arrived in Philadelphia, I was just happy to be there. Then T sent Metz out to scout the other semifinal game, and I said to myself that he was focused on winning the whole thing. I was really struck by that. This was someone who was thinking in large terms, and we went along."

Princeton defeated North Carolina 16-14 on a broiling hot day at Franklin Field in the semifinals, earning a spot opposite Syracuse in the final. Moe scored one of the Princeton goals against the Tar Heels, and, though the temperature dropped nearly 40 degrees for the championship game, Moe was just heating up.

Moe scored 32 seconds into the championship game to give Princeton the early lead, which grew to 6-0 when he scored his second midway through the second quarter. Even after Syracuse scored, Moe answered 41 seconds before intermission.

Syracuse came charging back in the second half, tying the score at 8-8 with 8:24 to go before Greg Waller scored with 2:37 go play to make it 9-8 Princeton. It looked like that would be the final score when Syracuse was called for a penalty with 1:30 to go, but the Orange were able to get possession and take advantage of a crazy hop off the turf to get Tom Marechek an uncontested goal with just 42 seconds to play to tie it at 9-9.

Justin Tortolani hit the pipe in the final 10 seconds of regulation, and the game went to a first overtime, where Kevin Lowe of Princeton and Dom Fin of Syracuse both had chances to end it. After four scoreless minutes, it was off to a second overtime.

Waller then won the faceoff in Moe's direction, and Moe picked it up and started to sprint to the goal.

"It was a normal 4 on 3 fast break," Tierney says. "Taylor [Simmers], for some reason, cut through, and the Syracuse guy went with him. That left Andy alone. He was going too fast to pass, so he had to shoot it."

Shoot it he did, skipping it into the Syracuse goal for the first of the six NCAA championships Tierney has won at Princeton.

"It happened very quickly," Moe remembers. "I remember after the ball went in that it was like being in a state of shock. I knew so clearly how it felt to lose, but I never really had experienced what it was like to win on a level like that.

"I had developed a shot where I would look down as if shooting to a lower corner of the goal and then shoot into the upper corner when the goalie would drop his stick. When I ran down, I did that move. I looked down with the intention of shooting in the upper corner. The ball ended up in a lower corner anyway, right where I was looking. The goalie kept his stick high. If the ball went where I had intended, we may not have won. Because the goal ended up going in a place I hadn't intended, I really felt that I couldn't claim credit fully for what happened. I've always had a curious relationship with that goal."

Except for a few very isolated games of catch a long time ago, Andy Moe has never played lacrosse again.

* * *

The recent event in New York City was the first real connection that Moe has had with his Princeton past since attending Justin Tortolani's wedding 12 years ago.

Out of sight, but as it turns out, hardly out of mind. At least not Andy Moe's mind.

"It was great to see everyone, to see T," Moe says. "It brought me back to all the times I heard him speak as a player. I was struck again by the integrity of the man. I've thought a lot about him since I've graduated. I feel like I carry with me a whole education in itself, a Tierney education, which is all about character. It has served me well since my graduation."

The coach himself was not unmoved by the reunion with the player who had done so much for him so many years earlier.

"It was awesome to see him," Tierney says. "People were walking up to him, shaking his hand. It was like he was a rock star. Everything about him is unique. Throwing the equipment off the bridge. You hope you never lose stuff like that.

"Lacrosse needs its legends."

Lacrosse needs legends like Andy Moe.

- By Jerry Price

Great story, Bill. Thanks.

billhoward
Princeton's goalie-out defense was pretty good the last two minutes when Cornell was on attack. And Cornell showed class with an open net in the last 10 seconds and just kept passing around the box rather than roll up the score to 5-3.

While it may have been class in part, its also good strategy. The shot could always freakishly go wide or slip out of your stick and go to the other team, giving them the chance with 10 seconds left. So while it is indeed nice not to run up the score, its also good strategy.

Other than that one nitpick, great post.

DeltaOne81

billhoward
Princeton's goalie-out defense was pretty good the last two minutes when Cornell was on attack. And Cornell showed class with an open net in the last 10 seconds and just kept passing around the box rather than roll up the score to 5-3.

While it may have been class in part, its also good strategy. The shot could always freakishly go wide or slip out of your stick and go to the other team, giving them the chance with 10 seconds left. So while it is indeed nice not to run up the score, its also good strategy.

Other than that one nitpick, great post.

That very thought you mentioned went through my mind - that a seal-the-game shot probably would go in or go wide and Cornell would retain possession ... but it could also fall into Princeton's hands and be like 2004, when Princeton tied Cornell on a last minute turnover two years ago (Cornell still won in OT). Cornell did have a pretty clear shot with about 5 seconds left and passed on that. At that point, Princeton couldn't have gotten it upfield and scored, and by the same token the goal would have been meaningless. Maybe it was poise as much as good sportsmanship.

In the second half, Cornell saw an apparent flaw that Boulukos could exploit and turned him loose for a half-dozen windups from the left side, the kind that almost brought us back from the impossible deficit against Duke in the 2005 NCAA quarters. None went in but they scared the bejesus out of Princeton as they sailed past Hewitt. I think one shot by Boulukos (?) took down Derek Haswell in front of the cage and as he slumped to the ground -- this is scary if you're a Cornell fan -- we captured the rebound and put it in for goal #3. That's my recall at least.

One other thing: faceoffs were pretty even or Cornell was slightly ahead, but a) there weren't enough to be statistically significant and b) about half of them really went to Cornell or Princeton (more Princeton) on procedural violations. So I wouldn't take this one game as a sign that the Cornell faceoff is back.

But the Big Red is definitely back.

DeltaOne81
While it may have been class in part, its also good strategy. The shot could always freakishly go wide or slip out of your stick and go to the other team, giving them the chance with 10 seconds left. So while it is indeed nice not to run up the score, its also good strategy.

Seems to me a year or two ago in a big game, a highly-regarded attack from Maryland (Walters?), with his team up a goal in the last minute, took a shot at a wide-open net, hit a post, and saw the opponents take it down the field to tie the game--and then win it in OT.

billhoward
One other thing: faceoffs were pretty even or Cornell was slightly ahead, but a) there weren't enough to be statistically significant and b) about half of them really went to Cornell or Princeton (more Princeton) on procedural violations. So I wouldn't take this one game as a sign that the Cornell faceoff is back.

In Hillel's pregame analysis he pointed to faceoofs as a Princeton weakness. [elf.elynah.com]

That game made me plotz.

Three in a row against Princeton, baby. And two in a row in New Jersey.

Cornell's ride was ferocious. A beautiful thing to see. No slackers out there on the ride -- not one. It's becoming a trademark. So satisfying to watch Princeton's body language as they were forced into turnover after turnover near the midfield stripe. There's a bonkers, croaky old lady who attends all the Princeton home games and cheers for the Princeton defense from goal-line extended. She was having a COW in the third quarter as she watched them throw the ball away on four clears in a row. Life is good.

The third quarter, when Hewit made a bushel of point-blank saves, illustrated the cost of losing Greenhalgh and Nee. Yeah, Hewit was spectacular. But Pittard, Haswell, and even Mitchell just aren't the cold-blooded finishers that Greenhalgh and Nee were. Tierney was quoted somewhere (The Daily Princetonian?) saying that Cornell, unlike other opponents, was dangerous because could finish their shots. Not today.

I was surprised that Princeton didn't use their explosive freshman middie Mark Kovler more. On Princeton's go-ahead third goal, he easily lost the defensive middie assigned to him, much as Syracuse's Pat Perritt did. Thought there would be a lot more of that.

The play of the game, I thought, was a fourth-quarter ground ball by David Mitchell. Cornell had taken the lead and possession, and Princeton had forced a loose ball behind Hewit near the end line. Mitchell ran to the ball without hesitation, turned so that the scrum was to his back, and calmly scooped.

Can anyone explain the call that allowed Cornell to maintain possession after Schmicker won the faceoff, then lost his shoe?

DeltaOne81

billhoward
Princeton's goalie-out defense was pretty good the last two minutes when Cornell was on attack. And Cornell showed class with an open net in the last 10 seconds and just kept passing around the box rather than roll up the score to 5-3.

While it may have been class in part, its also good strategy. The shot could always freakishly go wide or slip out of your stick and go to the other team, giving them the chance with 10 seconds left. So while it is indeed nice not to run up the score, its also good strategy.

Other than that one nitpick, great post.

Possession with a one goal lead, the opponent man down and less than two minutes left, is probably better than a two goal lead and a face off. Two years ago Princeton scored 3 times in the last 2 minutes to tie it up before Cornell won in OT.

Just got back into the office here in Taiwan and had a chance to read the game thread. Amazing how your emotions can roller-coaster just reading everyones' posts.

Wish I could have been there, though it almost felt like I was.

No let downs for Brown, please.

LGR!!!