Men's Lacrosse falls to Stony Brook in close loss

In their first lacrosse game under new head coach, Matt Madalon, following the dismissal of former head coach Chris Bates, the Princeton men’s lacrosse team (0-3, 2-7), faced off against eighth ranked Stony Brook (2,1, 9-2) at home in the first of two consecutive non-Ivy League games. Despite beating Stony Brook in shots, ground balls and turnovers, the Tigers fell 13-10. The Tigers entered the fourth quarter down only two, 11-9, but found the back of the net only once during the period while Stony Brook scored twice. Junior attacker Gavin McBride paced the Tigers in scoring with 3 goals and an assist — his 24th consecutive game with a point.

Sophomore Austin Sims got the scoring going by netting a goal less than five minutes into the game, giving the Tigers a 1-0 lead. However, the Tigers were unable to generate any momentum after the goal, as Stony Brook scored four goals in a seven-minute period to take an early 4-1 lead. The Tigers would never tie or lead the game again after this run. McBride cut the lead to two with seven minutes left in the period, thanks to an assist from junior Zach Currier, his twelfth assist of the season.

The first half of the second quarter was all Stony Brook as they scored three goals to jump out to a commanding 7-2 lead. The Tigers responded strongly, however, with three goals of their own to head into halftime with a manageable 7-5 deficit. Currier and senior Ryan Ambler each scored unassisted goals to bring the Tigers within three. McBride once again scored at the end of the quarter with 10 seconds remaining in the half thanks to an assist from Ambler.

The third quarter began with Sims’ second goal of the game. This was Sims’ fourth straight multi-goal effort, bringing him to 17 goals for the season and the team lead in the category. However, Stony Brook responded twice to reopen a three-goal lead, 9-6. At the halfway point, sophomore Riley Thompson got a goal to bring the score to 9-7 before Stony Brook scored twice more to increase its lead to 11-7. The Tigers continued their trend of scoring to end the quarter thanks to McBride’s third goal of the game and a goal from sophomore face-off man Sam Bonafede. Bonafede played arguably his best game of his career thanks to his second goal of the season and going 19-27 on face-offs — far above his season average.

The Tigers came within one at the start of the fourth quarter with the second goal of the game from Currier. The Tigers were unable to bring the game back to a tie, however, as Stony Brook scored twice more to win 13-10. The Tigers suffered four penalties in the game, including one that led to Stony Brook’s twelfth goal. Stony Brook did not have any penalty minutes. The Tigers played Lehigh University at home on Tuesday before they ended their season with three Ivy League games.