Dartmouth Men's Lacrosse Upsets No. 10 Princeton

Saturday, April 26

Hanover, N.H.

1:00 PM

Dartmouth College

PRINCETON

Dartmouth Men's Lacrosse Upsets No. 10 Princeton

4/26/2008 12:00:00 AM | Men's Lacrosse

By: Dartmouth

Saturday, April 26, 2008

Boxscore

Hanover, N.H. ? Five years ago today the Dartmouth men's lacrosse class of 2003 watched the clock expire as the Big Green broke a 14 game losing streak to Princeton with a 13-6 win. Members of the class of 2003 were honored at half time today as the current crop of Big Green players broke a four game losing streak, upsetting the No, 10 Tigers 11-9. The win puts Dartmouth at 6-7, 2-3 Ivy and Princeton drops it's first Ivy League game of the season, falling to 4-1, 7-5 overall. Cornell beat Brown, 11-7, this afternoon in Ithaca to clinch a share of the Ivy Title. Princeton and Brown will play next weekend to determine the other Ivy Champion.

“The guys showed real team heart playing for the seniors this afternoon, said Coach Bill Wilson following the game. I am so proud of the team for maintaining their poise when Princeton closed the gap to 9-9 in the fourth quarter. So many guys played well over the course of the game. It was a true team win. It is difficult to single out and mention any particular player when all of them played together for the entire 60 minutes.”

Sophomore goalie Michael Novosel (Somers, N.Y.) was tested from the opening faceoff and more than lived up to the challenge. The Tigers came out of the gate quickly, getting off three quick shots, which Novosel turned away. Jimmy Mullen (Mt. Lebanon, Pa.) came into the game at 12:12 of the first and successfully cleared the ball for the Big Green, taking a shot from just inside the restraining line for the first goal of the game. Senior Chad Gaudet won the ensuing faceoff but the Big Green turned the ball over. Princeton turned it right back over and Brian Koch (Rye, N.Y.) capitalized, scoring his 22nd goal of the season 41 seconds after Mullen's tally to make it 2-0 Dartmouth. Thirty-one seconds later Josh Gillam (Peterborough, Ont.) made it 3-0 with an assist from Tim Daniels (Duxbury, Mass.). Princeton fired four shots on Novosel in less than a minute, with the sophomore coming up with one big save after another to keep the Tigers off the board. Peter Striebel finally got a shot into the Dartmouth net to make it 3-1 with 4:27 to go in the first quarter. Daniels responded with an unassisted tally 27 seconds later, upping the Green lead to three at 4-1.

Dartmouth continued to pour it on; Koch scored his second of the game followed by an outstanding goal by Ari Sussman (New Haven, Conn.). Sussman came from behind the goal beating his defender and falling down fired a shot past Alex Hewitt to make it 6-1. Christopher Root (Houston, Texas) picked up a loose ball on a Princeton turnover, running the length of the field and scoring to make it 8-4 at halftime.

The Big Green never looked back. The Tigers tied the game at nine in the fourth quarter but never took the lead.

The third quarter belonged to Princeton. Coming out of the halftime break the Tigers again peppered Novosel with shots. Dan Cocoziello scored 12 seconds in to cut the Dartmouth lead to three at 8-5. Another Princeton tally and Sussman's third goal of the game with six seconds left in the frame brought the score to 9-6 headed into the fourth quarter. The crowd of 1826 watched helplessly as Princeton turned up the heat, scoring three unanswered goals to tie the game at nine with just over 12 minutes remaining in the contest. Philip Killian (Washington, D.C.) picked a great time to score his first goal of the season, putting Dartmouth back on top to stay at 10-9. With two minutes to go in the game, Princeton scored but the goal was waved off on a crease violation. Mullen put the icing on the cake with his 15th goal of the year at 1:42 for the final score of 11-9.

Princeton outshot Dartmouth 43 to 23 but Novosel played an outstanding game, coming up with 16 saves to Hewitt's seven. Faceoffs were almost even at 10 for Dartmouth and 13 for Princeton with both teams winning them at crucial times in their runs.

The Big Green wraps up the 2008 season at Harvard, May 3. Game time is set for 1:00 pm.