Tigers avoid upset in overtime stunner

For the upperclassmen on the Penn men’s lacrosse team, Saturday’s game at Princeton was deja vu all over again.

Last year at Franklin Field, a then-No. 2 Tigers squad escaped an upset at the hands of the unranked Quakers with an overtime goal to seal a 10-9 sudden death victory.

In the 2010 version, the visiting Red and Blue held a 7-1 third quarter lead but couldn’t hang on, eventually falling in overtime 11-10 to No. 4 Princeton.

“I felt like we were in control the whole time,” said coach Mike Murphy. “They took it away and we didn’t take it back. I was very proud of the way we played. I was just a little frustrated we didn’t finish the job.”

It was a tale of two halves at Class of 1952 Stadium.

Penn (4-4, 0-1 Ivy) won six of nine face-offs before intermission and controlled possession, grabbing 19 ground balls to the Tigers’ nine.

Penn goalie Chris Casey notched three saves and allowed just one goal in the first half — a testament to the Quakers’ defense, as the Tigers (5-1, 1-0) were averaging over 12 goals per game entering the contest.

The Red and Blue headed into the locker room with a 6-1 lead and, seemingly, the momentum.

Just minutes into the third quarter, Corey Winkoff’s goal gave the Quakers a 7-1 lead, their largest advantage of the day. But the Tigers rattled off four consecutive goals to close the gap to 7-5 early in the fourth quarter.

Rob Fitzpatrick and John Conneely responded by capitalizing on two man-up opportunities, pushing Penn’s lead back to four.

But Princeton would not be denied, scoring the next five goals and taking its first lead of the afternoon, 10-9, with just over a minute to play in regulation.

In the waning seconds, an unassisted goal by Penn attack Rob McMullen — one of eight Quakers to score on the day — forced overtime.

Joe Hegener, who replaced Casey between the pipes in the second half, drew the short straw this time, remaining in goal for the Quakers.

The Tigers unloaded 35 of their 47 shots in the second half and overtime.

Princeton’s increased time of possession began with draw control specialist Bobby Lucas. Though he lost the majority of his face-offs to Penn captain Justin Lynch on Saturday, Lucas was 7-for-10 in the fourth quarter alone.

Lucas also won the only overtime face-off, setting up freshman Jeff Froccaro’s game-winner.

Froccaro settled the ball to the right of the goal and jogged it in, collapsing the defense. After spinning back toward the middle of the field, he launched a perfectly placed turnaround shot at Casey’s ankles to end the match.

“Really, we had no business winning that game,” Princeton coach Chris Bates told Princeton Athletics. “We hardly had the ball. We played way too much defense, and they really picked us apart. They completely dominated us for the first two-plus quarters.”

For their near-win, the Quakers jumped to No. 19 in the LaxPower.com rankings, while Princeton fell to No. 9.

“It was two good lacrosse teams,” Murphy said, “and the fact that we were playing at a high level throughout — in some ways you feel good about that. But you also leave with a bad taste in your mouth.”

Penn will look to secure the ever-elusive upset next week when it hosts No. 14 Cornell.

An earlier version of this article stated that Joe Hegener started in goal for the men's lacrosse team and earned 3 saves and allowed 1 goal, and that Chris Casey replaced Hegener after halftime. This article was corrected to reflect the fact that Casey played the first half, allowing only one goal, while Hegener played the remainder of the game

---