Men's Lacrosse game of the week: No. 6 Princeton vs. No. 12 Harvard

Princeton and Harvard are known for being two of the most prestigious universities in the world, but they also have some great lacrosse teams.

The Tigers will host the Crimson this Saturday for their second conference game of the season. Their first conference game was against Cornell where they lost 15-10.

Princeton leads the all-time series against Harvard with a record of 18-5 over the Crimson and are currently on a two game-winning streak against Harvard.

Princeton is 4-2 this season with a 3-1 record away and a record of 1-1 at home. Some of their key wins this season are against Penn State, Duke and North Carolina.

Princeton’s top four scorers from last season have all come back and look just as good and better.

Those four are Coulter Mackesy, Colin Burns, Nate Kabiri and Chad Palumbo.

All four started all 16 games for Princeton last season and will most likely do the same this season unless of any injuries.

The one guy that stands out from the rest is Mackesy. He holds the record for most single season goals in Princeton history with 55 and has been a nominee for the Tewaaraton award for the last two seasons.

Mackesy is a player that makes any team so much time better and Princeton has been able to take advantage of that for all of his years on the team.

Not to mention, he has two games in his career where he has scored eight or more goals and seven games where he has scored five or more goals.

While Princeton’s offense has been playing outstanding this year, Harvard’s offense has also started off great this year.

The Crimson are 5-1 this season and are currently on a 4 game-winning streak. They are 3-1 at home and 2-0 away from home. Some of their key wins this season are against Providence, Syracuse and Yale.

They are led by senior Sam King. King leads the team in both goals and assists and has one of the best shot percentages in the country with 46.9%

And it’s not just King with a high shot percentage, but the entire team combined.

Through six games, they have scored from 90 of their 253 shots, which gives them a top five shot percentage in the country.

King also has four of the five game-winning goals for the Crimson this season.

However, the Crimson aren’t just heavily focused on offense, they are also heavily focused on defense.

Through six games, they have caused 63 turnovers which comes out to 10.5 caused turnovers per game, which is in the top 10 in D1.

Princeton and Harvard will face off in a highly anticipated matchup that will have all lacrosse fans tuning in this Saturday.

Princeton will hope to jump back up in the rankings after losing to Cornell while Harvard will look to make a jump with a big win over the Tigers.

Massimo Buonagurio is a first-year majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact him, email him at mkb6750@psu.edu.