(Photo by Bill Allen/NJ SportAction) PRICE CHOPPER: Princeton High girls’ lacrosse star Liz Price looks for an opening in recent action. Last Thursday, junior midfielder Price scored two goals and had an assist but it wasn’t enough as PHS fell 11-10 to Pennington.

Price Is Right for PHS Girls’ Lacrosse, Versatile Junior Providing Major Spark

Bill Alden

Liz Price was all over the field for the Princeton High girls’ lacrosse team last week against visiting WW/P-N.

The PHS junior midfielder took the draws, caused turnovers on defense, and bulled her way to five goals.

While Price’s efforts weren’t enough to bring PHS a victory as it lost 14-8 to the Northern Knights, Price was proud of how the team performed in a losing cause.

“We have been working on a lot of things at practice; we were really pumped for this game, we really wanted it,” said Price.

“Even though we lost this game, I think we just had a great effort for the whole team.”

The Little Tigers showed how much they wanted the game as they battled back from an early 5-1 deficit to narrow the gap to 8-6 at half.

“When we got ourselves in that rut, we really wanted to get out of it,” recalled Prince.

“We worked hard. We went on a big streak before the half and we wanted to keep the momentum up and keep doing that as we got back into the half.”

PHS scored the first goal of the second half to cut the margin to 8-7 but could never get closer than that as it fell to 2-3 on the season.

Price never stopped plugging, fighting for a ground ball in the waning seconds of the contest.

The competitive Price hit the field against WW/P-N looking to attack to the final whistle.

“I’m a center so I play attacking defense,” said Price. “It’s great being able to play everything, I really like being able to help out every part of the game. I had made a goal for myself before I came into this game — to make sure that I move this goalie and I took good, smart shots instead of just winging it.”

With PHS featuring several young players up front, Price is determined to help make them comfortable on the field.

“I feel a responsibility to be a leader on the team,” asserted Price.

“I never think that just because you’re a junior or a senior, you should be the one going to goal all the time. We had freshmen scoring today, we had sophomores scoring today. The whole attack is playing well; everyone is playing a key role in our attack.”

PHS head coach Joyce Jones will tell you that Price plays an absolutely key role for the Little Tigers.

“Lizzie is a playmaker, I can’t say enough about her,” said Jones with a broad grin.

“She had a great game. She wins the draw, she knows how to put the ball in the cage when we need it, she knows how to run; she knows how to force a turnover. She is one of those all-around great players any coach would like to have on their team; she does it all. When she’s finished, it’s when the whistle is blown and not before. You always know she is giving 1,000 percent.”

Jones liked the effort she got across the board in the WW/P-N game. “We stepped up our intensity, we stepped up our passing game, making the crucial passes,” added Jones, whose team fell 11-10 to Pennington last Thursday to drop to 2-4 on the season. “We decreased our turnovers for sure. We really played to win today.”

In Jones’ view, the desire her team displayed against WW/P-N is a harbinger of things to come. “We are young, we have a lot of potential,” said Jones, whose team hosts Notre Dame on April 25 before playing at Robbinsville on April 29. “We are going to build on our strengths and work on a few things.”

Price, for her part, thinks PHS can draw strength from the mentality it displayed against WW/P-N.

“I think we need to take today and improve on it,” said Price. “This was definitely a better team effort than our last few games. We played with confidence today which was a thing we needed to do. I think today is a great way for us to build our confidence going into the next few games.”

Having the versatile Prince patrolling the middle of the field is certainly a confidence builder for PHS.

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