May 29, 2004  |
May 29, 2004 |
Navy Dodges Princeton Bullet
BALTIMORE, Md. - Navy withstood multiple Princeton rallies to hold off the Tigers, 8-7, Saturday afternoon in an NCAA Semifinal Game at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore. The victory advances Navy to Monday's NCAA Championship Game for just the second time in the program's history.
“We are obviously very excited to win the game and beat a great team like Princeton,” said Navy head coach Richie Meade. “I thought it would be a close game. We could never pull away from them.”“This was a great event to be a part of. It's so hard to describe and then it's even better than that,” said Princeton head coach Bill Tierney. “We overachieved and persevered all year and today we lost to a better team. If today is the worst thing that ever happens to these guys then we will have a lot of successful young men.”
Navy quickly jumped out to a 2-0 lead. Adam Reel scored first for the Mids with 9:20 remaining in the first period, followed by Graham Gill adding his first goal of the game with 6:01 left to play. The Tigers cut the deficit to one goal at the 5:02 mark and then tied the game on a Mac Bryson goal just past the three minute mark. The two goals came on the Tigers' lone two shots of the quarter. Gill added another Navy goal with 1:54 showing on the clock to give Navy a 3-2 advantage at the end of the period.Princeton controlled the clock at the start of the second period, winning the face off and keeping Navy on defense for nearly five minutes. The Mids overcame a man-down situation for 30 seconds, but Bryson added his second goal of the day to tie the score with 10:09 on the clock.
Navy's Ben Bailey struck twice in a span of 18 seconds, ripping a shot past goalie Dave Law with 1:38 to play then, after the Mids won the face off, Bailey scored again off a pass from Billy Looney with 1:20 to play to give the Mids a 5-3 lead. The teams went into the locker room with Navy holding a 5-4 lead following Drew Casino's second goal of the half with 29 seconds to play.Navy goalie Matt Russell, who had only one save during the first half, came to life in the third period with a diving save during a man-down situation just one minute into the quarter. A few minutes later, Princeton scored the equalizing goal on a tally from Ryan Boyle at the 9:44 mark. After both teams missed several scoring opportunities, the Mids scored back-to-back goals in the final 93 seconds of the period. Joe Bossi notched his 42nd goal of the season with 1:33 to play, then Billy Looney ripped a shot from 10-yards out with 43 seconds to play to give Navy its third two-goal advantage of the contest at 7-5.
“Princeton shot the ball very well today,” said Russell. “I'm not making excuses, I should have played a lot better, but you have to give them some credit. At the half I told myself I had to turn it on and I felt like I played better in the second half. My teammates bailed me out in the first half.”The two-goal advantage lasted until early in the fourth quarter when Bryson picked up his third goal of the game off a feed from Boyle. Princeton came close to tying the game when Jason Donegar's shot hit the left post. The rebound caromed directly to Navy's Bucky Morris who started the Navy fast break. Morris quickly fed Ian Dingman who found Jon Birsner on the left side of the crease for a goal nine seconds after the Princeton attempt that made the score 8-6 with 8:33 to play in the game.
Sparky at the half
The Tigers, however, would not go away, cutting the deficit back to one goal at 8-7 on a goal from Peter Trombino with 4:50 to play. The Mids were able to once again win the face off and picked up a shot on the ensuing possession, which was saved by Law with 3:35 to play. Princeton worked the ball around the field but threw it away on a bad pass 65 seconds later. As Navy tried to clear the ball, it ended up being deflected back towards the Navy goal. A diving Russell was able to slide his stick over the ball and under a sliding Princeton player.Navy eventually cleared the ball and kept it in their offensive end until a Navy timeout with 45 seconds to play. After working the ball around the back of the field, Gill raced towards an empty Princeton goal but his shot hit the right post and saw his ball bounce out of bounds with 33 seconds to play. After a Princeton time out, the Tigers advanced the ball over the midfield line and called another timeout with 21 seconds left in the game.
“I knew there was only about 30 seconds left in the game, but I felt like if I scored there the game was over,” said Gill. “My heart sank when the ball hit the pipe.”Russell then made his second great save of the game off a point-blank shot from Trombino from about four yards out to preserve the Navy victory.
Navy's Chris Pieczonka, who won 12 of his 13 faceoffs last week against Cornell, dominated the faceoffs for Navy once again, winning 15 of the 19 faceoffs in the game. The Mids also dominated the ground balls in the contest, grabbing 43 in the game to Princeton's 27.
“The faceoff advantage was big for us,” said Meade. “They can't score if they don't have the ball. Pieczonka has been dominant at the x for us during this tournament.”
Syracuse Avenges 2003 Semi Loss
Senior midfielder Kevin Dougherty (Syracuse, N.Y.) scored a career-high five goals and freshman midfielder Danny Brennan (Farmingdale, N.Y.) won a personal-best 16 faceoffs as No. 4 Syracuse defeated top-seeded Johns Hopkins in the NCAA Division I men's lacrosse semifinals in front of a record crowd of 46,923 at M&T Bank Stadium. The win sends the 14-2 Orange to the NCAA championship game for the 14th time overall and fifth time in six years. SU will face Navy in the title game at 2:30 p.m. on Monday, May 31. The game will be televised LIVE by ESPN.A total team effort characterized the Orange win against Hopkins. SU had a lot of motivation after losing to the Blue Jays 17-5 earlier in the season and 19-8 in last year's national semifinals. The team showed off its improved defense, a hot goaltender in junior Jay Pfeifer (Towson, Md.), an emerging face-off star in Brennan and a patient and efficient offense that was led not only by Dougherty's outburst, but by senior attackman Brian Nee's (Cockeysville, Md.) four goals.
"I think some of our people really stepped up," said Syracuse head coach John Desko. "Danny Brennan just did an outstanding job on the faceoffs. Jay Pfeifer once again did a great job in the cage. The team defense was very good and so was our offense. I give a lot of credit to our assistant coaches, Roy Simmons at the defensive end and Kevin Donahue on the offensive end. My hat is off to them because everything worked to a tee today."The defense limited Johns Hopkins (13-2) to fewer than 10 goals for the first time since April 10. Pfeifer recorded 13 saves and improved his NCAA Tournament record to 8-1. He also moved up to third on SU's career NCAA saves list with his 124 tournament saves since 2002.
Brennan was instrumental in the victory. In the first Syracuse vs. Hopkins meeting on March 20, the Blue Jays won 20 of 24 draws. The Orange rookie did not play in that game. He saw his first action at the X against Loyola on April 10 and since that point has matured into a force at the position. He won the first four draws of the game and finished 16-of-26 for the game. Junior midfielder Jarett Park (Otisco, N.Y.) contributed off the wing and collected three groundballs.SU led 4-2 after the first quarter. Nee had two goals. Both teams were three-for-three on extra-man opportunities in the first half. Conor Ford and Matt Rewkowski recorded back-to-back goals at 8:49 and 5:48 of the second quarter for Johns Hopkins to knot the score at 4-4. The two teams traded goals once more before halftime and SU senior attackman Michael Powell (West Carthage, N.Y.) found Dougherty with 47 seconds remaining to give the Orange a 6-5 halftime lead. SU improved its record to 10-0 this season when holding the advantage at intermission.
"I was just closing my eyes and shooting," said Dougherty. "I realized pretty early that they weren't sliding to me at all. I think it's pretty easy for anybody on our team to be successful when you're not getting slid to. And I think the theory behind that from Johns Hopkins' point of view is as a team defense they were concentrating on certain guys on our team and they were sagging towards Mike (Powell) or Sean (Lindsay). They were worried about those guys."Powell broke the school's all-time NCAA assists record with his assist to Dougherty. His three assists against Hopkins pushed him ahead of Tim Nelson, who set the record from 1983-85 with 27 NCAA tournament helpers. Powell now holds the record with 29. He reached another milestone with his third assist to sophomore midfielder Brett Bucktooth (Onondaga Nation, N.Y.) with 1:02 remaining in the third quarter. That assist marked his 300th career point, making him just the fourth Division I player to achieve the feat.
The Blue Jays registered the first two goals of the third quarter. Kyle Harrison tied the game at 6-6 and Ford gave Hopkins its first lead of the game (7-6) at the 12:38 mark. SU sophomore Greg Rommel (Syracuse, N.Y.) netted two third-quarter goals, including one off an assist from linemate Steve Lykudis (Camillus, N.Y.) that tied the game at 7-7 at 10:28. JHU's Greg Peyser used an outside shot to put his team back on top, 8-7, but Rommel answered again with a left-handed shot that found the back of the net with 3:16 left in the third period. SU rattled off the next three goals to take an 11-8 lead into the fourth quarter. The Orange used a left-hander by Dougherty, a blast by Bucktooth and a diving back-handed shot by senior Sean Lindsay (Cortlandt Manor, N.Y.) with three seconds remaining in the third period to take control of the game.Powell slipped a slick shot inside Hopkins goalie Scott Smith and the right goalpost while running in from the right side. Dougherty added two more goals in the fourth quarter. By then the game was well in hand.
The Orange has won its last six games. They will meet Navy, a team they did not play during the regular season, but scrimmaged back on February 14 at the Carrier Dome. SU had the upper-hand in that meeting, 10-8, despite the absence of Mike Powell who attended his sister's wedding.Other news and notes from SU's semifinal win: Senior attackman Brian Nee's third goal of the first half was the 90th of his career. He is the 24th Orange player to score 90 goals in a career. He ranks 23rd on the SU career ledger with 91. SU's second midfield line of Greg Rommel, Steve Lykudis and Brett Bucktooth accounted for four points (three goals, one assist). Rommel scored twice, his first multi-goal game in NCAA Tournament action.
Syracuse will be shooting for its ninth NCAA crown on Memorial Day. The Orange won its last championship in 2002 at Rutgers Stadium. The Orange also won in 2000, 1995, 1993, 1990, 1989, 1988 and 1983.A good crowd High Bandwidth
ACTION VIDEOS
Navy's Ben Bailey High Bandwidth
Princeton's Ryan Boyle doesn't get the call. High Bandwidth Only
Navy's Ian Dingman High Bandwidth
Princeton's Drew Casino High Bandwidth
Navy's Adam Reel to Joe Bossi High Bandwidth
Navy's Ben Horn to Ian Dingman to Ben Bailey High Bandwidth Only
Princeton's Dave Law High Bandwidth Only
Princeton's Peter Trombino High Bandwidth
Navy's Billy Looney High Bandwidth
Syracuse's Sean Lindsay High Bandwidth
Syracuse's Mike Powell to Brett Bucktooth High Bandwidth Only
Johns Hopkins' Greg Peyser High Bandwidth
Syracuse's Greg Rommel High Bandwidth
Johns Hopkins' Peter LeSueur to Matt Rewkowski High Bandwidth
Syracuse's Brian Nee High Bandwidth
Johns Hopkins' Kevin Boland to Matt Rewkowski High Bandwidth
Syracuse's Jay Pfeifer High Bandwidth Only
Johns Hopkins' Kyle Barrie to Conor Ford High Bandwidth
Syracuse's Alex Zink to Brian Nee High Bandwidth
Syracuse's Mike Powell High Bandwidth
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