It has been 11 years since the Harvard men's lacrosse team notched a victory over Princeton. Saturday's final score left little reason to expect that streak to end anytime soon.
To the delight of the 2,672 fans that packed Princeton's Class of 1952 Stadium, the No. 1 Tigers massacred Harvard, 15-1, for their 35th consecutive Ivy victory. Princeton (8-1, 4-0 Ivy) showed no signs of looking past the Crimson (6-4, 1-3) in preparation for its Ivy title showdown with No. 12 Cornell (6-3, 4-0) next weekend.
Against Princeton and Cornell-the elite teams of the Ivy League-the Crimson has fallen by a combined score of 31-4 in the past two weeks.
The Tigers led 3-0 after the first quarter and 9-1 at the half. The ultimate outcome of the game was never in doubt.
Princeton freshman Ryan Boyle gave the Tigers a 1-0 lead just 2:12 into the afternoon. The attackman leads the Ivies in total scoring and assists.
Harvard kept Princeton off the scoreboard for the next six minutes before giving up a man-advantage, which the Tigers promptly exploited. Princeton junior B.J. Prager found the net on a strong pass inside from Boyle to make the score 2-0. The tally extended Prager's goal-scoring streak to 28 games.
Senior attackman Dana Sprong-Harvard's leading scorer with 18 goals and five assists on the season-scored the Crimson's lone goal on an assist from sophomore Doug Logigian four minutes before halftime. Princeton was already up 8-0 before the Crimson marked the scoreboard.
The Tigers converted on four of six Harvard penalties on the day. Princeton's Rob Torti did most of the damage, scoring three times with the man-advantage.
Princeton outshot Harvard, 41-23. The Crimson could not continue the faceoff proficiency it had against Brown, winning just 5-of-19.
Senior Torti finished with four goals to lead all scorers. Boyle finished with two goals and three assists on the day. Unfortunately for Harvard, Boyle will only get better over the next three seasons.
Princeton goaltender Trevor Tierney stopped eight shots while allowing just one goal. His goals-against-average of 5.29 leads the nation.
Crimson freshman Jake McKenna played the majority of the game in net, stopping eight shots in defeat. McKenna's goals-against-average of 8.22 still ranks in the top 20 of the nation. The recent pummelings at the hands of Cornell and Princeton have not helped his statistics. He was leading Tierney and the rest of nation in the category before the events of the past two weeks.
Harvard's schedule does not get any easier. The Crimson hosts No. 4 Massachusetts (9-0, 4-0 ECAC), the only undefeated team in the nation, at Jordan Field on Wednesday afternoon. Yale comes to town on Saturday night for Harvard's last home game of the season.
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