Coming off a big 19-13 win over the University of Vermont last Wednesday, the Dartmouth men's lacrosse team headed down to Princeton, NJ to face a daunting task -- the top-ranked Princeton University squad.
Unfortunately, the momentum from the victory over the Catamounts could not carry the Big Green past the powerful Tigers, who won 19-5 last Saturday in front of a strong home crowd of 1,634 at the Class of 1952 Stadium.
Though they managed to keep it close for much of the first half, the Big Green lost control of the game a few minutes before the half-time whistle.
Trailing 7-4 with less than five minutes to go, the Big Green were still in the game before the Tigers exploded for 12 goals in the next 15 minutes.
Dartmouth (3-7 overall, 1-4 Ivy) was victimized by Princeton's powerful offense, especially junior attackmen Jon Hess and Jesse Hubbard.
Hubbard, last week's Ivy League Player of the Week and a 1996 Ivy League Co-Player of the Year, had four goals to become the third player in Princeton athletic history to pass the career 100-goal mark.
Hess also had four tallies and added four assists to finish with a career-high eight points on the day.
Princeton (10-0 overall, 5-0 Ivy) clinched a tie for the Ivy League title with yesterday's victory, their 23rd straight win.
The game started out slowly. The Tigers went up 5-2 in the first period. Both Princeton and Dartmouth each scored twice in the next 10 minutes, and a goal from Scott Hapgood '97 with 5:53 left in the second quarter brought the score to 7-4.
At that point, however, the Tigers started to show why they are ranked No. 1 in the nation. A score from Hess with 3:28 left in the first half started a 4-0 Princeton run which left the Big Green down 11-4 at the half.
The Tigers came out strong again in the second half, going on an 8-0 run in the third. Dartmouth scored once more in the fourth to bring the score to 19-5.
Senior Brian Merritt, the Big Green scoring leader so far this year, had two goals and an assist on Saturday. Hapgood, sophomore George Wisecarver and freshman Will Lamson each had one goal, while Gary Stern '99 had an assist.
Co-Captain David Kosloff '97 and sophomore Andrew Dance split the time in goal, and both played admirably before the barrage of 56 Princeton shots.
