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Zhao, Sorichetti, Physical Defense Shine as Hopkins Tops Princeton to Close Fallball
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- Zhao, Sorichetti, Physical Defense Shine as Hopkins Tops Princeton to Close Fallball
( Inside Lacrosse Photo: Sean Sadayasu )
In fall of 2023, Princeton beat defending champions Notre Dame 20-7 in a notable fallball result at the Bob Kemp Classic.
Now defending champs themselves, the Tigers losing 10-6 at home vs. Johns Hopkins to close fallball is not a particularly alarming result (especially given that the Fighting Irish went on to repeat as champs seven months later). As one informed member of the visiting group said, "That looks like a team that was on vacation last week."
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That's referring to one of at least four extenuating circumstances looming over the Tigers for the last month. The first is upstart program SMU's recruitment of Matt Madalon that he ultimately turned down . Then the team left for their quadrennial team trip, heading to Italy during fall break. The third is SMU's successful recruitment of offensive coordinator Jim Mitchell, who was announced as the Mustangs' first head coach last week and, as a result, was not on the sidelines Saturday. The fourth and final is the nine Tiger seniors in the NCAA Transfer Portal , currently receiving inbound interest to spend their graduate season in 2028 — including from SMU and Hopkins.
For those reasons and everything that the historic Blue Jay program brings to the table — an extremely veteran group with a clear question mark in replacing Matt Collison and a compelling addition in face-off specialist Walter Zhao, a transfer from Vermont with two years of eligibility remaining — Saturday's contest was one of the most compelling fall contests in recent memory.
While the game was remarkably complete in terms of each team's assumed starters, two notable absences were Hopkins goalie Oran Gelinas and Princeton defender Hunter Spiess. Tiger defender Jack Stahl started but left after the first quarter with a minor leg injury.
At attack, Princeton started seniors Nate Kabiri and Colin Burns and left-handed junior Peter Buonanno. They were guarded by Carson Brown, Quintan Kilrain and Luke Martin, respectively. A little more than six minutes in, Kabiri opened the scoring with a nice underhand cross-field skip pass to Buonanno, who canned a stepdown. While he ended up being de-sticked twice throughout the day, Kabiri also showed that Grant Ament- or Tom Schreiber-esque distribution throughout the day.
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Hopkins responded immediately after Zhao won the face-off — his second en route to, I think, going perfect in the first quarter (stats were not kept) — flipped the ball overhead to his wing, and shortstick Liam Burke scored a stepdown 12 seconds after the prior goal. On a subsequent possession, starting goalie Colin Vickrey saved a Hunter Chauvette stepdown from top center then, with 4:37 to go in the opening frame, Georgetown transfer Ben Firlie swept right-handed topside and beat Vickrey stickside high, giving the Jays a lead they did not relinquish.
The Blue Jays started seniors Jimmy Ayers, Chauvette and Gabe Sorichetti at attack, and they were guarded by junior Finn Fox, sophomore Matt Giannetti and freshman Caden Creech, respectively. Sorichetti made it 3-1 with a dodge from the lefty wing, stutter and then deposited the ball five-hole. A little more than a minute later, Chauvette found space inside and middie Jameson Smith fed him from the top down.
They ran four midfield lines, splitting Brooks English and Chuck Rawson among the top two. English ran with sophomores Max Wickersham and Jay Rodgers while Rawson ran with Smith and freshman Jacob Johnston.
After a Hopkins defensive stop and failed clear, Buonanno hit the pipe on an empty net, but Kabiri made a nice one-handed catch up high to gather the rebound and finished, closing the first quarter scoring at 4-2.
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Penalties, missed exchange passes and really impressive physical Hopkins defense plagued (or highlighted) the first nearly 13 minutes of the second quarter. Tiger junior middie Jake Vana, with his square shoulders and signature two-handed cradle, got to the middle of the field and overwhelmed Blue Jay goalie Dash Lamitie up high, cutting the Blue Jay lead to one late in the second.
Vana ran on the first line with senior Tucker Wade and sophomore Parker Reynolds. The second line was juniors Porter Malkiel and Aidan McDonald and sophomore Will Fuller. The Tigers' first shortstick pairing appeared to be seniors Cooper Mueller and Owen Fischer and the second (though they may have gotten more run) was junior Isaac Cruz and freshman Remi Zeitlin. Senior Jackson Green had one catch for 18 yards in the Tigers' 21-20 win over Cornell, which was happening concurrently, steps away from Class of 1952 Stadium.
With 10 seconds to go in the half, the Blue Jays' endline restart led to Chauvette finding Sorichetti on the inside to extend the lead to 5-3.
Both teams continued to play their starting attack and defenders into the third quarter, though Hopkins started mixing things up first, and freshman Colby Rossettie found Jimmy Ayers to make it 6-3 seven minutes into the frame.
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The Blue Jay defense's physicality — particularly Brown and Martin — stood out, and head coach Peter Milliman praised the speed and organization of their backside recoveries postgame.
.@jhumenslacrosse coach Peter Milliman postgame: https://t.co/MUHzgKH3rD
— Terry Foy (@TerenceFoy) October 31, 2026
After Martin drew a penalty, Hopkins subbed its full five-man unit in for man-down defense and Buonanno immediately found Burns inside for the touch finish.
Another Blue Jay sub at attack, Charlie Iler got topside off a speed dodge to beat third quarter goalie, freshman Blake O'Callaghan. Then Connor Kuttin scored the first of his two goals to make it 8-4 with 44.8 to go in the third with a righty shot from the wing off good ball movement. The Tigers got two back in the fourth, first on extra-man then on a freshman John Barnds alley dodge through a longpole and a slide. Kuttin then made it 9-6. Hopkins sophomore James Rost sealed the scoring when he got to the middle of the field and canned a nice overhand shot on the run.
The teams played a 10-minute running time fifth quarter and freshman Mack Smink scored a transition goal when his team was two-men down.
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Check out Princeton coach Matt Madalon's postgame comments, and check back for Dan Aburn's highlights from a beautiful Halloween day in Central Jersey.
.@TigerLacrosse coach Matt Madalon postgame: https://t.co/3G6nXsVIO9
— Terry Foy (@TerenceFoy) October 31, 2026
