For several stretches on Saturday afternoon, it looked like the Big Green would play the giant-killer and bring down one of the Goliaths of the national lacrosse scene, Princeton University.
But for several other stretches, the Tigers showed why they are one of the best teams in the nation.
Unfortunately for Dartmouth, Princeton flashed their national brilliance more than the Big Green played giant-killer.
Dartmouth fell,15-7, to second-ranked Princeton (10-1, 5-1 Ivy) on Saturday in their final home game of the season. The loss drops the team's record to 8-4 overall and 2-3 in the Ivy League.
"This was by far the best team we've played [this season]," goalie Ned Hazard '96 said.
And for the first 20 minutes on Saturday, Dartmouth played them even.
Princeton struck first, five minutes into the game, but Dartmouth quickly answered. Tim Kennedy '96 fed Dave Fivek '94 who fired a shot from 10 yards out that managed to catch the upper right corner of the goal.
Five minutes later, the Big Green took a one-goal lead on an Eric Welsh '95 score. Bill Thomas '94 started the play from the defensive end by stripping a Princeton player of the ball and feeding a streaking Dave Hehir '95 who began the counter-attack. Hehir found Brendan Bowler '94 who recorded the assist.
But the Big Green didn't hold the advantage for long. Princeton wasted only 14 seconds in tying the score at two. The Tigers added two more goals over the next minute to take a 4-2 lead with 3:33 left in the first quarter.
Bowler scored with 1:48 left in the first period to cut the Princeton lead to 4-3. Todd Smith '95 assisted.
Brian Merritt '97 tied the game at four when he picked up a rebounded shot and scored from a yard out, just 47 seconds into the second quarter.
That was as close as the Big Green would get. The Tiger offense exploded for four goals in a five minute span to take an 8-4 lead and send Dartmouth reeling into the locker room at the half.
Welsh scored his second goal of the afternoon with one minute left in the half to bring Dartmouth to within three, but Princeton found the net again with 24 seconds left to take a 9-5 halftime lead.
Princeton never looked back from there, scoring three times in each of the last two quarters. Smith scored Dartmouth's sixth goal off of a Peter Fahey '94 assist in the third quarter. Fahey finished the Dartmouth scoring in the fourth period, firing a 15-yard shot past the Tiger goalie. Welsh had the assist.
"I'm proud of the way we performed. We caused Princeton lots of problems," Coach Tim Nelson said. "We frustrated their staff and players."
Penalties frustrated the Dartmouth staff and players. The Big Green were called for 17 penalties (seven more than Princeton) and repeatedly found themselves playing a man down. That's not good news when you're facing a team that features a two-time All-American attacker, and the goalie who's been voted the nation's best for the past two years.
"Princeton was a little bigger, faster, and stronger," Nelson said.
That was most obvious on the offensive end. The Tigers whipped the ball around in their offensive third and were constantly moving and cutting. The end result was 52 Princeton shots (as opposed to 27 for Dartmouth). Hazard made 15 saves, several off of point-blank shots; but he couldn't stop everything.
