Men's Lacrosse: Schreiber stars as Princeton roars over Hopkins

Mission accomplished. Four goals from freshman midfielder Tom Schreiber and shutdown goalkeeping from junior Tyler Fiorito keyed the No. 10 Tigers to an emphatic 8-3 win in the 81st meeting between the two programs.

“I thought we came out and really did assert ourselves,” head coach Chris Bates said. “We got off to a good lead, and we continued to play with [a high] level of intensity.”

The action got started before the whistle had even blown, as the teams exchanged words during the pregame warm-up. When play began, Princeton struck first. For the second week in a row, the Tigers opened the scoring within the first minute off a shot by senior midfielder Tyler Moni. Princeton added two more before six minutes had elapsed to run the score to 3-0.

At that point, frustration from the Hopkins side bubbled to the surface. Freshman midfielder Nick Fernandez suffered a crushing hit from Blue Jays defenseman Chris Lightner, and despite protests from the players on the field and from the bench, the hit was not ruled a penalty.

“I thought it was a disgraceful lack of penalty call there,” Bates said. “It seemed pretty evident to me that it was a high, unnecessary hit ... [Referees] are human, but that seemed to be a pretty glaring non-call.”

Disgraceful or not, the hit set the tone for a physical first quarter. Fortunately for the Tigers, the team was able to ride out the storm.

“It’s good,” Fiorito said. “Sometimes we’re not the most physical team, but I think if we’re physical in between the two restraining lines and getting ground balls, it sets the mood.”

The game eventually settled down, with Hopkins holding most of the possession and applying pressure to the Princeton goal. The defense, however, was up to the challenge, holding the Blue Jays to just 12 shots on target and creating 15 turnovers.

“[Defensive coach Greg Raymond] watched a lot of film, and we really had a great gameplan,” Fiorito said. “They were calling out plays and we knew what was coming.”

“They run specific sets [on offense], and if their set doesn’t work then they have to reset it,” Fiorito added. “So if we play good, solid defense for 20 seconds, they pulled out and reset.”

The Blue Jays answered with a goal to open up the second quarter, but Princeton continued to take it to Johns Hopkins as Schreiber made it 8-1 with his fourth goal early in the fourth quarter.

“He wants to be the best,” Fiorito said of his teammate. “He’s great up top creating space for himself, and he has one of the hardest shots on our team. He’s got all the tools to be great, and I think he’s on his way.”

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Johns Hopkins made a valiant attempt at a comeback in the final frame, with goals by Kyle Wharton and Chris Boland closing the gap to five goals. The Tigers, meanwhile, could not pad their lead, missing a series of glorious opportunities.

“I thought it was a little sloppy by all of us [at the end of the game],” Bates said. “I thought it was sloppy on my part at points. Thankfully, we had enough of a lead.”

The win is all the more welcome because of the improvement the Tigers showed. Against Hofstra, the team allowed four goals in man-down situations. It killed both penalties against the Blue Jays on Saturday.

“Week one, we were overly eager,” Bates said. “I think that just comes with getting a game under the belt. When we did go man-down, I thought we just were a little more cohesive.”

The Tigers’ triumph was not without cost. Sophomore defenseman Rob Castelo went down with an injury to his left knee early in the game, and Bates said that “it doesn’t look great.” Castelo will be examined on Monday, but early indications are that the player may have torn his ACL.

Jack McBride warmed up with the team on Saturday but did not play due to his injury. The game against Johns Hopkins proved that Princeton can win without their injured duo, but with No. 11 North Carolina coming to town this weekend one season after the Tar Heels beat the Tigers 12-11 in Chapel Hill, Bates will need his team to prove their character once again.

“They’re a top-ranked team,” Bates said. “We feel like if we bring the same kind of edge and intensity this weekend, we’ll be ok. If we don’t, it could be a long day.”