Men's Lacrosse: Capretta wins Princeton’s longest game

The Tigers got off to a slow start, falling behind 1-0 in the first quarter and enduring a drought of nearly eight minutes before freshman attackman Mike MacDonald gave Princeton its first goal of the game. After seven more scoreless minutes for the Tigers and a turnover with 58 seconds remaining, the first quarter looked like it would end in a 1-1 draw. The defense had other plans, however, shutting down Yale’s clear attempt and allowing junior midfielder Tucker Shanley to pick up a crucial ground ball. Seconds later, sophomore midfielder Tom Schreiber found junior attackman Forest Sonnenfeldt for a man-up goal, and the Tigers took their first lead of the game.

The ensuing face-off led to a goal by junior midfielder Jeff Froccaro in just 16 seconds, and Princeton headed into the second quarter with a two-goal lead following the huge swing in momentum.

The Bulldogs answered Princeton’s three-goal flurry with two of their own to tie the game 3-3, but they would never regain the lead they had lost in the first quarter. The Tigers cracked open another two-goal lead, but Yale answered once again to force a 5-5 tie at the end of the third quarter.

Princeton came out firing in what it expected would be the final period of the game. In less than five minutes, Schreiber, Capretta and Shanley netted goals to give the Tigers a commanding 8-5 lead. The offensive barrage forced a Yale time-out, and the Bulldogs produced a goal of their own after regrouping. Capretta responded with his second goal of the quarter, and the game appeared out of reach for the Bulldogs, who trailed 9-6 with under four minutes to go in the game.

Capretta’s goal was followed by a nightmarish turn of events for the Tigers that would cost them five additional periods of exhausting play. Yale won the ensuing face-off and scored immediately afterward, but Princeton still held a comfortable two-goal lead and the ball with 1:03 on the clock. Just then, the Bulldogs forced a turnover and sprinted the entire length of the field to score with 47 seconds remaining. The Tigers lost their third consecutive face-off, and Yale scored its ninth goal 26 seconds later to send the game into overtime.

Head coach Chris Bates cited the face-off defeats as the main weakness in Princeton’s fourth quarter performance.

“We knew that kid [Yale’s Dylan Levings] was going to give us trouble on the face-offs,” he told GoPrincetonTigers.com. “Even with a three-goal lead, momentum changes pretty quickly on a face-off.”

During the first two sudden-death, four-minute overtime periods, Princeton outshot Yale 14-1 but could not find the back of the net. It was not until more than half of the fifth overtime had passed that Shanley found Capretta cutting toward the crease for a side-armed game-winner placed just above the goalie’s stick. After the game, a beaming Capretta accredited the scoring opportunity to Shanley’s creativity in shifting the defense.

“Tucker made a great dodge,” he said. “He drew the slide, and I drifted down. He made the pass, I took a shot and fortunately it was in a good spot.”

Capretta, who ripped off four shots in overtime before finally scoring on the fifth, described the goal as a satisfying end to a nerve-racking game.

“It was a huge relief. We took probably 25 shots as an offense in overtime. To finally have one go in was a huge relief.”

Although Bates was disappointed with his team’s inability to hold its fourth quarter lead, he expressed pride in the way the players responded to the momentum shift.

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“Defensively, we kept playing. We didn’t get frazzled, and at the end of the day we won a good game,” he said afterward. “I give our guys credit. It’s a learning game for us. Hopefully we become a more mature team [because of this game].”

The Tigers, who have now won three consecutive games, will get a chance to show their coach how much they have matured next Saturday when they travel to Rhode Island to face Brown. When the two teams met a year ago, Princeton emerged victorious after playing four overtime periods in what is now the third-longest game in program history.