No. 16 Rutgers men's lacrosse loses Tots Meistrell Cup to No. 14 Princeton
The Rutgers men’s lacrosse team fell to Princeton 14-8 in the 101st all-time Tots Meistrell Cup matchup on Sunday. In last season’s overtime thriller, the Scarlet Knights (5-2) defeated the Tigers (4-2), but the former was not as fortunate this time around.
It was a stalemate in the opening minutes of the game. No. 16 Rutgers’ offense could not get much going, but on the other end, Cardin Stoller notched five saves through the first five minutes to keep No. 14 Princeton at bay.
The scoreless tie was finally broken at the 8:01 mark when Coulter Mackesy netted his 13th goal of the season to give the Tigers the lead. Tucker Wade, making his first career start, added another, and Princeton quickly jumped out to a 2-0 lead while the Knights continued to look disorganized offensively.
Mackesy made it 3-0 before Shane Knobloch finally got Rutgers on the board with his team-leading 15th goal of the season. Colin Kurdyla, the reigning Big Ten Freshman of the Week, built on Knobloch’s goal and scored not even 30 seconds later. The Knights, after not scoring for 12 minutes of game time, picked up a quick 2 goals and cut their deficit to 3-2.
The Tigers were holding for the last shot of the first quarter before Ryan Splaine, returning from injury, made a clean interception to instead give Rutgers the chance for the final shot. The Knights could not take advantage, though, and the quarter ended at 3-2. Rutgers trailed 9-5 in shots on goal, but Stoller remaining stout kept the Knights right in it.
The second quarter’s scoring began much quicker than the first, as Princeton found the back of the cage just over a minute in and once again 3 minutes in.
When Rutgers needed it most, Jack Aimone and Kurdyla answered the call for 2 goals to bring the score to 5-4.
But every time the Knights got a push, the Tigers pushed back. Mackesy responded by bullying his way inside for his 3rd goal of the afternoon, netting a hat trick in just over 20 minutes of game time. He then assisted Sean Cameron for another goal before Wade scored once again and Princeton led 8-4.
With 3 straight goals in just a minute and a half, the Tigers controlled the faceoff following the Wade goal and made it 4 straight goals, with the score coming just 6 seconds after the previous.
Princeton went into the locker rooms leading 9-4. Rutgers turned the ball over 12 times in the opening half.
In a third quarter in which the Knights needed to outscore the Tigers to chip away at the 5-goal deficit, the latter instead built on their lead. The game went from 9-4 to 12-5 heading into the final quarter.
The final quarter was much of the same as Rutgers simply looked out of sorts all day long. The Knights fell 14-8.
Knobloch, Kurdyla and Aimone led with 2 goals apiece. Stoller finished with 16 saves. Ross Scott scored his 100th career goal in the contest.
Michael Gianforcaro was impressive for Princeton between the pipes, finishing with 14 saves and a save percentage of 66.7.
Rutgers now faces a gauntlet of six straight top-20 opponents, beginning with No. 20 UMass on Saturday.