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Old Guns Ignite 2nd Period Barrage As Tiger Men's Lax Takes Opener
By Bill Alden
With its lineup stocked with new faces, the Princeton men's lacrosse team struggled early in its season opener last Saturday against visiting Quinnipiac.
The Tigers, who came into Saturday with only nine players on their 46-player roster who had ever scored a college goal prior to the start of this season, found themselves trailing the feisty Bobcats 4-2 early in the second quarter.
At that point, two of the team's old guns, junior attacker Jason Doneger and senior Drew Casino, gave their younger classmates a crash course on pinpoint shooting.
Doneger fired in five second quarter goals while Casino tallied a hat trick in the period to fuel an eight-goal outburst that left Princeton ahead 10-5 at the half.
The Tigers never looked back as they cruised to a 19-10 win over the Bobcats before a sunsplashed opening day crowd of 2,218 at Class of 1952 Stadium.
Doneger, who scored 41 goals last season, acknowledged that Princeton started the second quarter looking to atone for some subpar play in the season's opening moments.
"The first quarter was pretty ugly," said Doneger. "We came out in the second quarter and worried more about ourselves and doing our thing."
The 6'1, 205 pound Doneger certainly did his thing as he exploded for four goals in a two-minute stretch of the quarter as he single-handedly transformed the game from a 5-5 tie to a 9-5 Princeton lead.
"What happens is you score once and then you score twice and for whatever reason you're feeling good," said a grinning Doneger as he reflected on his second quarter outburst. "You go in spurts and you get a hot hand. Sometimes it goes in, sometimes it doesn't."
Casino, for his part, thought the team's barrage was only a matter of time. "I think it was a pot waiting to boil," said Casino. "We were just raring to go. We have a lot of young guys and they were a little bit timid at first. Once that spark happened, we really opened up and some of the guys showed what they can really do."
The burly 6'3, 235-pound midfielder who had entered Saturday with nine career goals with a single-game career best of two, was happy to show what he can do offensively.
"I'm playing more often than in the past," said Casino, the Tigers' face-off specialist. "When the team needs me to face-off, I'll do face-offs. When they need offense, I'll play offense. Because of the progression of things, things came my way and things opened up."
Princeton head coach Bill Tierney was happy for the most part with the way his young squad opened its season. "I like what I saw between the beginning of the second period and the third quarter," said Tierney with a chuckle.
"As I said to them, with these kids we're going to get there. This is what we're going to be like all year long, these ups, these downs. Hopefully with each game, we can learn from these mistakes."
In addition to the production from Doneger and Casino, another of the Tigers' key veterans, senior All-American Ryan Boyle, came up big as he scored two goals and five assists in guiding the attack. Five freshmen notched their first career goals including Peter Trombino, Scott Sowanick, Mike Gaudio, Michael Biles and former Princeton High star Whitney Hayes.
As the younger players fight through the inevitable bumps in the road, Tierney will be depending on Doneger and Boyle to steady things.
"They are going to have to do that all year long," said Tierney in assessing their performance Saturday. "Ryan and Jason have done a great job, kind of being co-coaches on the field. They allow us to say what we need to say and they interpret it. They can decipher the message to the young guys without the emotion."
Doneger has enjoyed guiding his younger teammates. "We have 14 freshmen and I feel it's really rejuvenated the program," maintained the Hewlett, N.Y. native. "It's been fun leading these young guys. With each week, they've gotten more and more comfortable. It's filling them with the idea of what Princeton lacrosse is all about and they've really bought in."
With the Tigers facing a stiff challenge on March 6 as they play at perennial national power and 2003 NCAA finalist Johns Hopkins, Doneger believes the game could be an important step in the team's learning process.
"Next week will be an amazing challenge for us, it will be telling," he added. "This team can be great. I think come playoff time we could be a really strong team that could scare some people."
