Princeton embarrasses Men's Lax

For 15 minutes, the Penn men's lacrosse team looked like it was up to the task of playing Princeton, the defending national champion. For the rest of the game, the Quakers looked only like they were up to the task of watching the Tigers as Princeton scored 17 -- yes, 17 -- unanswered goals. A tight 2-2 game after the first quarter quickly turned into a rout, which quickly turned into an embarrassment as the Tigers, ranked No. 5 in the country, defeated Penn, 19-2. "We just didn't execute," Penn defender Kevin O' Brien said. "There were a lot of breakdowns on defense. We weren't picking up our guys." Penn (4-5, 0-4 Ivy League) fooled the few hundred spectators yesterday afternoon into thinking it would be a game after the first quarter. Midfielder Brian Napolitano, capitalizing on a rare Tigers turnover, scored the first goal of the match at 11 minutes, 45 seconds of the first quarter to give the Quakers the early lead. Princeton's Josh Miller tied the match when he split Penn's defense and scored an unassisted goal at 9:56. After another Tigers score, junior attacker Andy Crofton, last week's Ivy League Player of the Week, scored Penn's second and final goal at 5:25 of the first quarter. Napolitano had the assist. "I think Penn came in with a real good game plan, slowing [the game] down," Princeton coach Bill Tierney said. "But then we just started clicking a little bit." The Tigers (5-2, 2-0) clicked more than a little bit. They scored seven goals in the second period, five in the third and another five in the fourth. Princeton's 17th goal was an incredible 65-yard shot by Andrew Mitchell. It was the second straight goal on which Penn goalie Travis Heinrichs was burned for straying too far from the net. The Tigers were notably quicker and stronger than Penn throughout the game. Princeton's ball-control ability was also vastly superior, and the Tigers' attack always seemed to have a clear direction. Many of Princeton's goals were set up by pinpoint assists that left the scorer with a clear angle to shoot and Heinrichs virtually powerless to prevent -- or even slow down -- the onslaught. Having a bit of mercy for an outclassed Penn squad, Princeton decided to play keep away for the last five minutes instead of continuing its relentless attack on the Quakers' net. The game was over long before -- both teams knew it. "They're one of the top teams in the country and we didn't do what we needed to do to have a chance to win," said Crofton, adding the Quakers' weakness at faceoffs contributed to the thumping. "We've got Dartmouth on Saturday. We have to put this behind us and get ready for that."