Rutgers men's lacrosse defeats Princeton in overtime
The Rutgers men’s lacrosse team picked up its fourth straight win on Saturday after defeating in-state rival Princeton 14-13 in overtime. In the 100th all-time meeting between the two teams, the Scarlet Knights (6-1, 0-0) ultimately came out hoisting the Tots Meistrell Cup.
The game began with the Tigers (2-3, 0-0) jumping out to a 2-0 lead before No. 6 Rutgers got on the board with a goal from senior midfielder James Ringer. No. 18 Princeton then struck again with 2 more goals. With more than 3 minutes left to play in the first period, the Knights trailed the Tigers 4-1.
The second period is where Rutgers did its damage to decrease the point deficit. From the 12:07 mark to the 11:04 mark in the second period, the Knights got on a 3-0 scoring run to tie the game at 5-5. Junior midfielder Shane Knobloch netted the first 2 goals of that run.
Princeton would quickly reestablish its lead, going on a 3-goal run of its own to take an 8-5 lead. Rutgers once again responded, scoring the final 4 goals of the second period and taking its first lead of the game with 22 seconds left in the second period.
Contributions during the 4-0 scoring run came from all over, as four different Knights scored. Rutgers took a 9-8 lead into halftime.
At the half, the Tigers led the Knights 15-14 in shots on goal, while Rutgers made two more saves than Princeton.
The second half began in a similar way to the first, with Alexander Vardaro scoring a goal for the Tigers. The Knights quickly responded with 2 goals of their own coming from Cameron and sophomore attacker Dante Kulas.
It was Princeton's turn to fight back, and the third period ended with things knotted up at 12-12.
In the fourth period, both teams' defenses took control, as just 2 goals were scored in the period. Senior attacker Brian Cameron scored the game-tying goal for his third of the day, and Sam English scored for the Tigers. Nobody could break the stalemate in the final 4 minutes of the fourth period, and the period ended in a 13-13 tie, with the game headed to overtime.
With 2:42 on the clock, the Knights would pull off the overtime victory when Kulas found the back of the cage for the goal.
Rutgers ended up taking 15 more shots than Princeton in total and three more shots on goal.
Three different Knights players finished with 5 points on the day. Kulas tallied 4 goals and one assist, Cameron scored 3 goals and dished out two assists and Knobloch scored 2 goals while picking up three assists.
Senior goalkeeper Kyle Mullin finished with 13 saves and 13 goals allowed for Rutgers.
The Knight will look to continue their winning streak on Saturday when they travel to Amherst, Massachusetts, to play UMass. The faceoff will be at 1 p.m. The game will be the first of a three-game road trip for Rutgers and will be its last out-of-conference game before starting Big Ten play.
"That Tots Meistrell Cup means a lot to our alumni and our program here at Rutgers," said head coach Brian Brecht. "When you have the 100th all-time meeting between the two schools and to win it at home in that 100th meeting, it is pretty special and something they will remember for the rest of their lives."
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