The game didn't come down to face-offs.It was Ground Balls +

The inability to break Princeton's Zone Defense. We won the Face-Off battle during the 2nd Qtr and overall it was 16-14 in Princeton's favor. If you watched the game and felt it came down to face-offs then I'm not sure if you're watching the same game. Lots of stuff happens after the face-off. It's one data point in the overall story.

We lost the game for 2 reasons:

1. Princeton beat us on ground balls 46-30. That's 16 more possessions. That led to 12 more shots. Both goalies played phenomenal. You do the math. We will lose every time. Corrigan's teams are supposed to win that battle. From the time you pick up a stick in 2nd grade well-coached teams do ground ball drills. It's like a nutcracker in football. It separates the lax bros from the serious players.

We were losing the GB battle 18-3 after the 1st quarter. That was terrifying. The plane was still flying but we were about to go down unless we massively course corrected. You can tell when Corrigan was interviewed that that stat was crushing him. ND has good kids. They were trying hard. They wanted it. Princeton also has good kids. One of their star players beat cancer. Their goalie's dad has ALS and hasn't been to a game in 8 years. I met Kabiri at a camp last year and he was one of the most humble young men I've met. They wanted it more. It sucked to watch but it happens. I'm not sure what Carlos Huerta wants the Board to do.

2. Our shots were poor because we couldn't break the zone. Offensive mindsets require rhythm and timing. We had none yesterday. Two of the Princeton kids went to the same high school. They could read each other's mind.

I love the team but our best teams have had offenses around guys that know each other well and have spent years developing timing, e.g Kavanaughs. It's like a QB-Receivers.

Our offense stalled at times this year becasue that rhythm was off. This wasn't 2024. This year's team may be more talented but lacrosse offense requires timing and rhythm. Princeton capitalized on that weakness and for one horrific 20-minute span it was catastrophic.

Those kids don't owe us anything. They came to play and it sucks it didn't work out. I'm 100% positive they are more upset the loss than Carlos Huerta.