A Home And Away Tuesday

The Princeton field hockey team defeated Delaware 3-2 Friday night in a very dramatic and very entertaining game between two Top 20 teams. 

There were two extraordinary plays that made the difference, the second by Hannah Davey to stop a counter one way and then dribble all the way back into the circle and set up Claire Donovan perfectly for the game-winner midway through the fourth quarter. The other was a great individual effort on Princeton's second goal, scored by freshman Beth Yeager, to tie it at 2-2, after Delaware had scored two straight of its own.

It was a big win for Princeton, who had started out 0-3 – albeit against highly ranked ACC schools. The Tigers didn't let up Sunday, scoring five times in the first quarter en route to a 7-0 win over Boston University. For her part, Yeager scored three more goals while assisting on two others in that game, earning her the Ivy League Offensive Player of the Week award for the first time in her career (TigerBlog suspects there will be others in her future).

With the successful weekend behind them, this is a busy week for the Tigers, who move from the ACC to the Big Ten, with the Ivy opener in between. Princeton is at Maryland today at 4, and Princeton is home again Sunday against Rutgers. Both the Terps and Scarlet Knights were in the Top 10 last week, as Princeton's schedule is never easy.

There is also the matter of the game against Penn Friday night in Philadelphia. Princeton has won 26 Ivy League field hockey championships, by far the most in league history. 

TB has always liked field hockey. The rules make for a very fast-paced game, especially on the lightning-quick turf fields of today. It wasn't always that way, of course. 

In fact, TB used to cover Princeton field hockey games often in the fall when he was still in the newspaper business, back when the team played on the grass of Gulick Field. If you have no idea where Gulick Field was, it's not where Plummer Field (the practice soccer field) is near the tennis courts and Class of 1952 Stadium.

Gulick actually stood next to Lourie-Love Field, which was the soccer field for several decades. Both fields had natural grass and wooden stands, with nothing else – no bathrooms, no press box, no permanent concession stands. For big games, there might be a concession table set up.

TigerBlog is trying to remember what was on the spot where Sherrerd Field now stands. Bedford Field, the field hockey field, was just a dirt and rock staging area for equipment and vehicles. Perhaps Sherrerd was too? 

The field hockey bus will probably be back at Princeton just after the end of the men's soccer game. Those Tigers are home against St. Joe's at 7, on Sherrerd Field (admission is free). 

Like the field hockey team, the men's soccer team has been righting the ship of late. The Tigers dropped their first two games, against Rutgers and Vermont, but since have beaten Colgate and Fairfield by a combined 5-0.

Also like the field hockey team, the men's soccer team has a huge shot advantage over its opponents on the young season. The field hockey team has outshot its opponents 80-45. The soccer team has done so 69-30. That's 149-75 between them, or just short of two to one.

The men's soccer team has held its opponents scoreless for 188:10 of game play dating back to the final minutes of the 2-0 loss at Vermont. For its part, Princeton did not score a goal in the first five halves of the season but since have scored those five goals in just 127 minutes.

Francis Akomeah-Sirleaf has scored to of the goals, while Walker Gillespie, Daniel Diaz Bonilla and Moulay Hamza Kanzi Belghiti have one each.

The game tonight is the second of four straight at home to round out the end of September. Princeton will host Penn State Saturday at 4 and then St. John's a week from today at 8 (the second game of a doubleheader that begins with the women's game against Bucknell) before heading to Dartmouth Oct. 2 for the Ivy opener.