On January 24th, the annual Lawrenceville hockey game took place. The school was flooded in spirit as everyone wore hockey jerseys and the assigned black for the psych. Hopes were high in the PDS community as the student body sang and danced to throwback songs such as Crank That (Soulja Boy) and Everytime We Touch in the theatre lobby. After weeks of friendly banter on the Lawrenceville vs Princeton Day School Facebook page, it was finally time to come face to face with our rivals. Students filed into Princeton University’s Hobey Baker rink with record-breaking numbers. I can safely say that it was the most packed PDS sporting event I have ever been to. Some students painted their faces blue and white, while others waved flags of pride in the air. As soon as the players entered onto the ice, the crowd went crazy: screaming, cheering, banging on the glass, stomping their feet.

The Panthers looked ready to conquer the world.

It was a high scoring game as goals were constantly added to the scoreboard. Down by 3 in the first period, PDS started to started to lose hope. However, the players pushed themselves to the limit as Junior Alexander Allen put the first goal on the board. Following in his lead, Senior Ty Eastman and Sophomore Luke Antonacci scored as well. PDS chants echoed throughout the chilled stadium. Alumni goalie, Boris Gorelenkov ‘18, was in the crowd and excited Zoo Keeper, Jimmy O’Connor, brought back the infamous “Bor!” chant. Although Boris could not be on the ice with us this year, his younger brother, Stepan was in and played a mean offense the entire game. Our other forward men like Coby Auslander, Ty Eastman, Alex Allen, David Sherman, and Gibson Linnehan all played an amazing game as well. Our defenders, Chip Hamlett, Justin Sherman, Trevor Mackles, Luke Antonacci, Birch Gorman, and Chris Cecilia put up a strong fight throughout the entire game keeping the Lawrenceville players out of our zone.

In the last period, everyone was on the edge of their seats. The game was tied and no one knew what was to come. Sadly, in the last few minutes Lawrenceville snuck in another goal. The game concluded with a 4-5 ending score. Although it was not the outcome that we wanted, everyone was extremely proud of how the Panthers had played. The loss will only make PDS stronger, and Lawrenceville better watch out for when we meet them again next January.