May 26, 2002

Quotes

PISCATAWAY, NJ -- Fourth-seeded Princeton jumped out to a 5-1 first quarter lead, led 6-1 and 7-2 in the second quarter, and never let Johns Hopkins trim the deficit to one goal as the Tigers ended the Blue Jays' season with an 11-9 win in the NCAA Division I Men's Lacrosse Semifinals at Rutgers Stadium. The win, before a Rutgers Stadium lacrosse record crowd of 23, 123, improves Princeton's record to 10-4, while Hopkins had a nine-game winning streak snapped and falls to 12-2.

The Tigers wasted little time jumping on the Blue Jays, who counted eight freshmen among the 20 players who apperaed in the game. Brad Dumont and Josh White both scored in the first six minutes of the game to stake the Tigers to a quick 2-0 lead. An Adam Doneger goal off a feed from freshman Kyle Harrison at the 8:42 mark put the Blue Jays on the board, but that would be Hopkins' only goal in the first 23:54.

B.J. Prager pushed the lead to 3-1 with an extra man goal at the 4:34 mark of the first quarter, and Dumont and Prager added goal in a span of just 35 seconds in the final minute of the first half to make it 5-1.

"We dug ourselves into too big of a hole in the first half, and with the way Princeton plays, it's hard to dig yourself out," Johns Hopkins head coach Dave Pietramala said afterward. The Blue Jays outscored the Tigers, 8-6 over the final three quarters, but that first quarter proved to be more than they could overcome.

The second quarter was even as the teams traded goals to account for a 7-3 Princeton lead at halftime. A Brendan Tierney goal just three minutes into the quarter made it 6-2, before an unassisted goal by Kyle Barrie at the 6:06 mark finally ended the scoring drought for the Blue Jays. Prager and Doneger traded goals in the final 3:37.

The second half saw the Blue Jays climb back in the game with a series of two-goal runs, but each was answered by a two-goal run by the Tigers and Hopkins was never able to pull within one goal.

Barrie and fellow freshman Peter LeSueur both scored in the first 3:46 of the second half to pull Hopkins within 7-5, but as he did all day, Prager had an answer. His fourth goal of the game with 8:31 remaining in the third quarter made it 8-5 and an Owen Daly extra man goal less than a minute later made it 9-5.

"We're not a slow down team, we just know when to run and when to slow things down," Prager noted afterward. "It's a credit to everyone else on offense when I'm able to have a game like I did today."

The Blue Jays appeared to have the momentum heading into the fourth quarter as Doneger and senior Matt Hanna scored in the final 3:36 to trim the deficit to 9-7, but once again the Tigers had an answer.

Sean Hartofilis, held scoreless for the first three quarters, scored an unassisted goal on a dodge through traffic just 1:19 into the final period and Prager added his fifth goal of the game just over two minutes later to make it 11-7. Still, Hopkins had one final push.

Barrie drew the Blue Jays within 11-8 with his third goal of the game with 8:13 remaining and Kevin Boland added an unassisted goal with 3:41 left in regulation. The Blue Jays had several more shots in the final three minutes, but Princeton goalie Julian Gould stopped Boland point-blank with just over two minutes left and Bobby Benson's 10-yard shot with just under a minute to go to bring the Blue Jays' season to an end.

"A lot of the difference today was experience," Pietramala added. "You can't simulate the fact that if you win this game you get to play for the national championship. If you lose, you go home. When you experience a season with a special group like this, it's tough to see it come to an end. But these guys have nothing to be ashamed of. In the beginning of the season, we were the third worst team in Baltimore...13 games later, we're 12-1 and playing the defending national champions in the Final Four."