Tuesday, September 17, 2024

Tiger Pros

TigerBlog will spend a bit more time tomorrow on the Women's U20 World Cup and the ridiculous ending to the United States-Germany quarterfinal Sunday night.

In short, the United States won a game (2-2, 3-1 in penalty kicks) after trailing 2-0 through eight minutes of second half stoppage time. Think about that. Eight minutes into stoppage time, needing two goals — and the U.S. got them. 

Keep in mind, Princeton's Pietra Tordin is on the United States team, which has now advanced to the semifinals. Again, TB will have more on that tomorrow. 

For today, it's a focus on a few of the professional Tigers, beginning in the NFL.

Andrei Iosivas has 20 career NFL receptions, of which six have gone for touchdowns.

Jerry Rice had 1,549 career NFL receptions, of which 197 went for touchdowns.

That's one touchdown for every 3.3 receptions for Iosivas and one touchdown every 7.9 receptions for Rice. Just saying. 

Okay, maybe that's not a fair comparison. Still, Iosivas has definitely shown an affinity for being able to get open in the end zone and make difficult catches there if necessary in the early stages of his Cincinnati Bengals career.

He did both of those Sunday against the Kansas City Chiefs, in a game that KC eventually won 26-25 on a last second field goal. Iosivas caught two touchdown passes from Joe Burrow in the game, the first with a great toe drag to stay inbounds and the second when he managed to lose his defender to get wide open.

Iosivas' TD receptions were on catches of three and four yards. It's much harder to do that than to run a deep pattern, by the way. 

Oh, and there are only 11 players in the NFL with two TD receptions this season. Nobody has more than two, so Iosivas is now tied for the league lead. 

Iosivas wasn't the only Princetonian to have a big Sunday in professional sports. Princeton men's lacrosse also had itself a pretty newsworthy weekend.

The National Lacrosse League held its annual draft Sunday night, and Princeton had two recent alums selected. The first was Sam English, who went No. 2 overall, chosen by the Toronto Rock. The other was Marquez White, who went 35th overall to the Buffalo Bandits. Hopefully White, who will be Dr. Marquez White in the near future, can find time to play in the NLL.

Also, Princeton had four representatives on the Utah Archers, who defeated the Maryland Whipsnakes 12-8 Sunday in Philadelphia to win a second-straight Premier Lacrosse League title. This added to the championship total for three of them, while a fourth won for the first time.

TigerBlog will start with Beau Pederson, who won his first PLL title in his rookie season. Pederson had a caused turnover and four groundballs in the final, and he continued to be a freakish physical presence at the shortstick defensive midfielder position. 

There is also the head coach of the Archers, former Princeton head coach Chris Bates. That's two straight PLL titles now for Bates as the team leader. 

Lastly, there are the two veterans, Ryan Ambler and Tom Schreiber. Ambler had an assist in the final, and it came at a huge moment, with less than one second to go in the third quarter and the Archers up by one. His pass to teammate Dyson Williams was ridiculous.

Schreiber missed the final with a broken collarbone, but his impact on the league is without peer. Actually, the same is true of Ambler.

Even more than their on-field success (which adds up to two PLL titles for both plus a Major League Lacrosse title for Schreiber), there was what happened Saturday at the PLL awards banquet.

First, Schreiber won the Gait Brothers Midfielder of the Year Award. Is this news? Well, the league has been around for six years, and Schreiber has now won five of them. The other? That was another Princeton alum, Zach Currier.

It was the other award Schreiber won, as well as the award that Ambler won, that really stands out from the weekend. 

Ambler won the Jimmy Regan Teammate Award. Schreiber won the Brendan Looney Leadership Award.

Regan (Duke) and Looney (Navy) were both college lacrosse players. They were also both killed in action (Regan in Iraq, Looney in Afghanistan) before they ever got to see their 30th birthdays. They are true heroes, true larger-than-life figures who represented the very best of what lacrosse has ever produced.

To win awards in their name is quite a special achievement.

To do so speaks volumes about who Ambler and Schreiber are and what they are all about.

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