Scarlet Knights Hang with Princeton

From the Official Rutgers Men's Lacrosse website:

PRINCETON, N.J. – Sophomore Justin Pennington (Flemington, N.J.) scored three goals, but No. 17/16 Princeton held Rutgers to only one goal in the second half en route to a 7-6 victory over the Scarlet Knights men's lacrosse team Tuesday evening at Class of 1952 Stadium.

Rutgers (2-4) has now lost its four games by a combined seven goals and all four losses were to teams ranked in the Top 20. In addition to Pennington's three tallies, sophomore's Taylor Bottar (Syracuse, N.Y.) and Tad Stanwick (Baltimore, Md.), and freshman Kory Kelly (Princeton, N.J.) each netted a goal in the loss.

Princeton (3-3), which had dropped three of its last four contests coming into the game, was led by Tommy Davis, who had two goals and an assist. Goalie Alex Hewitt ended the game with 10 saves, including a decisive stop on a Pennington shot with six seconds remaining in the game.

After a back-and-forth first quarter, Rutgers started the second period on a 3-0 run to gain a 5-3 advantage entering the intermission. Defense would dominate though in the second half, as Princeton held RU scoreless for nearly 29 minutes. During that stretch, the Tigers scored four consecutive goals to take a 7-5 advantage.

Pennington scored his third goal of the game with 7:21 on the clock to get the Scarlet Knights within one at 7-6. After alternating possessions over the final seven minutes, RU had two quality looks at the game tying goal with less than thirty seconds to play. A Gerhard Buehning (Essex Fells, N.J.) shot with 28 seconds remaining in the game went just wide and a low shot by Pennington with six seconds left was stopped by Hewitt to seal the game for the Tigers.

Rutgers will next be in action against ECAC foe St. John's on Saturday, March 29. Game time is set for 1 p.m. at Yurcak Field.

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