UMBC

Baltimore—For the second time in four nights, the men’s lacrosse team rallied against a top ten foe, but could not complete the comeback and dropped a 6-5 decision to No. 5 Princeton before 1,744 fans at UMBC Stadium.

UMBC fell to 3-2 on the season, while Princeton improved to 3-0.

The Retrievers  were led by senior midfielder Peet Poillon (Cranberry Township, Pa.), who assisted on four of UMBC’s six goals. Senior middie Alex Hopmann (Annapolis, Md.) was the only multiple-goal scorer for UMBC, as he scored two goals and took over the team lead with 13.

Princeton scored the only goal of the first quarter in a surprisingly low scoring game, as both teams came into the contest ranked in the top five nationally in scoring. UMBC tied the score on a man-up goal by freshman attackman Rob Grimm (Black River, N.Y.) with 5:34 remaining in the half, then took a 2-1 lead as Hopmann bounced in a shot on another man-up situation with just 30 seconds to play in the half.

But the Tigers continued to win face offs and quickened the pace to start the second half. They were able to solve UMBC’s defense four times in the first 3:49 of the half to turn a 2-1 deficit into a 5-2 lead. Princeton added their sixth goal with 3:19 to play in the third quarter.

But the Retriever defense stiffened and Hopmann snapped the 5-0 run with UMBC’s first even strength goal of the game at the 10:37 mark of the fourth quarter. It seemed that Princeton would leave Baltimore with a three-goal margin, but UMBC caused a late turnover and senior attackman Ryan Smith (Fallston, Md.) drove inside and scored with 1:24 remaining.

The Retrievers then won just their second draw of the game, as junior defensive middie Jordan Pierce (Glen Burnie, Md.) won the scrap and junior midfield Kyle Wimer (Lancaster, Pa.) drove in from the top and scored an unassisted goal with 57 seconds remaining.

The next face off resulted in a six-man battle, but Princeton defenseman Chad Wiedmaier came up with a tough ground ball in his defensive end and the Tigers were able to clear the ball and play keep away until a turnover with seven seconds left. After a time-out UMBC attempted a long downfield pass, but it was knocked away just before the final horn.

Princeton’s Mark Kovler led the visitors with two goals and an assist.

Both goalkeepers were excellent. UMBC senior netminder Jeremy Blevins (Cockeysville, Md.) made 11 saves in the game, blanking PU with four saves in the fourth quarter. Tiger freshman Tyler Fiorito had 10 saves and was aided by six posts that the Retrievers rang during the game.

UMBC will play at No. 8 Maryland on March 14.