PRINCETON, N.J. — Day two of the Princeton Invitational brought the heat at DeNunzio Pool as the No. 6-ranked/homestanding Tigers scored 32 combined goals – including four hat-tricks – to overpower No. 17 the United States Naval Academy, 20-10, and No. 11 the University of California-San Diego, 12-11.
Facing Navy, the Tigers kept the pressure up in their second game of the Princeton Invitational as six different goal scorers gave Princeton a 7-3 lead after the first quarter.
Finn LeSieur netted a first half hat trick to keep his team out in front as the Midshipmen matched the Tigers’ goal count in the second quarter to make the game 9-5 entering halftime.
The third quarter brought a wave of Princeton goals as the Tigers swamped the Midshipmen. Enrique Nuño scored his first goals with the Tigers after joining the team after the U19 European Championships.
Roko Pozaric and Gavin Appeldorn recorded their own hat tricks to wrap up the game and get the win over Navy.
On offense, Appeldorn, LeSieur and Pozaric each scored three times with Vladan Mitrovic, Nuño and William Swart firing in pairs of strikes. Nathan Banos, Logan McCarroll, Gavin Molloy, JP Ohl and Ádám Peocz each dented the twine once in support of a 12 save performance from goalkeeper Kristof Kovács.
In the second game of the day, the Tigers overcame an early deficit to dispatch UC-San Diego.
UCSD scored first, but Princeton quickly knotted things up at one apiece thanks to a goal from Tas Palcza.
The teams played to a six-all tie by halftime as six different Princeton athletes deposited shots.
The third quarter had an offensive spark with Princeton tallying up four goals, including two from Palcza, while Kovács and the Tiger defense held the Tritons to one goal in the third quarter.
The fourth quarter had some drama as UCSD ventured to battle back to potentially force overtime.
With the score sitting at 10-7, the Tigers and Tritons went back and forth exchanging goals. LeSieur was able to find the back of the net with 49 seconds left on the clock for what proved to be the winning goal as Princeton improves to 6-0 on the year.
Palcza (three), LeSieur (two) and Pozaric (two) registered multi-goal games with Appeldorn, Banos, George Caras, Mitrovic and Molloy contributing solo markers.
Kovács finished with nine saves.
Information courtesy Princeton University Athletics Communications
