Men's Lacrosse: Armour returns in Rutgers win

The No. 10 men’s lacrosse team once again utilized stat leaders sophomore attack Mike MacDonald, senior midfielder Jeff Froccaro and junior offensive middie Tom Schreiber Tuesday night, rebounding from its nail-biting 13-12 home loss against No. 8 Syracuse on Saturday to defeat in-state rival, Rutgers.

The Meistrell Cup will thus return to Princeton’s campus for the 24th time in the past 25 years. After topping the Scarlet Knights (2-10 overall, 0-4 Big East) last night, the Tigers (7-3, 2-1 Ivy League) now lead the all-time series by an enormous margin of 59-29-3 and have captured 24 of those 59 victories in the last 25 meetings between the two teams.

Though the Tigers have dropped in the Division I national rankings since the start of the season and have lost to some historically beatable, though certainly not always easy, opponents, they have scored in double figures in all 10 games this season. Together, MacDonald, Froccaro and Schreiber have notched 73 goals and 39 assists. The rest of the team, meanwhile, has compiled 52 goals and 35 assists over the span of 10 games. Schreiber had posted at least three points in every game this year coming in and kept that streak alive when, on the restart with 14 seconds remaining in the first half, he carried the ball to Rutgers’ net for his third and final goal of the evening to expand the Tigers’ lead to 9-6 into the second half.

Perhaps more exciting than the trio’s usually notable performances, however, was senior attack Luke Armour’s three-goal spell in the first 18 minutes of the matchup. Battling foot injuries at the start of the season, Armour remained on the sidelines throughout Princeton’s first nine games after also missing half of the 2012 season due to injuries. At last cleared to play, he started in the spot that freshman attack Ryan Ambler had successfully filled since the start of the season.

Elsewhere on the field, the Tigers adapted well as starting positions changed hands. In particular, senior shortstick defensive middie Chris White and junior shortstick defensive middie Jack Strabo took the bench because of injuries. Freshman shortstick defensive middie Austin deButts joined his brother, junior middie Hunter deButts, and assumed one of the unfilled positions, ripping a shot on goal in his longest playing streak in a single game this season. Senior Bobby Lucas, a shortstick defensive middie prior to the extensive pre-2013 season reshuffling and team rebuilding, returned to his old position against Rutgers last night. Lucas had been starting as an offensive middie.

Despite what one may assume given Rutgers’ record, the Scarlet Knights held on against their ranked opponent. Returning from a 5-2 deficit, they rallied to tie the game 5-5 with 6:59 remaining in the first half, and then again at 6-6 a little over a minute later. In typical MacDonald-Froccaro-Schreiber fashion, however, the Orange and Black scored three goals in the final three minutes of the first half and brought that momentum into the second.

The beginning of Princeton’s rally came from freshman middie Jake Froccaro, who now boasts 15 goals and six assists.

The Tigers, now with a need-to-win approach toward their final games of the season, travel once again this Saturday. Dartmouth, currently sitting at the bottom of the Ivy League with a 0-3 conference record, will host Princeton before the Tigers return home for an evening matchup against Harvard the following Saturday.