The men's soccer team must proceed with caution this weekend. All is not what it appears to be.
The Tigers (4-0 overall, 0-0 Ivy League) begin their quest to repeat as Ivy League champions tomorrow when they host Dartmouth (2-2, 0-0), a team whose record from last year belies its capabilities.
The Big Green finished a disappointing second to last in the Ivy League last season with a record of 2-9-4 — that's after posting back-to-back 10-win seasons in 1997 and 1998. In Ivy League play last year, they went 1-4-2.
But the expectations in Hanover, N.H., this season are much greater.
The Big Green is returning 19 letterwinners, nine of whom were starters last year. Six of those starters are seniors who as freshmen tasted Ivy League victory and remember competing in the NCAA tournament.
Immediate impact
And it's not only who Dartmouth is bringing back, but also the new faces who will be wearing green this weekend who expect to make an impact.
Freshmen forwards Matt LaBarre and Robbie Daly have already contributed toward the Big Green's goal production in Dartmouth's first four games. LaBarre has three goals this season, which earned him Rookie of the Week honors in the league. Daly has also helped out up front, adding a goal and an assist.
On defense, Dartmouth is led by senior sweeper Ben Kennedy. The senior, who missed the final nine games of last season due to a broken arm, will be joined by senior defender Mike Abbate and sophomore defender Matt Miller — the only two players on the Big Green to start all 16 games last year.
Experienced seniors and a few talented freshmen can turn a team around.
But despite all the Big Green's returning players, new additions and a poor record from last year, the Tigers are not about to be caught napping.
"Our league is so even that you come in second to last and you're still pretty close to the top," head coach Jim Barlow '91 said. "Our game with them last year was 2-1 ,and we were holding on a little bit at the end. So the fact that they finished seventh doesn't really make us feel too confident."
Explosion
The Tigers look to maintain the momentum that their four victories have provided and keep their potent offense rumbling along. In those four wins Princeton, has outscored its opponents 10-2. Either junior forwards Matt Behncke or Mike Nugent has scored two goals in each of those victories. Behncke finished last season with five goals, and he's already up to four this season.
"It's great to have those two guys playing real well," Barlow said. "Hopefully some other guys will step up with the goals as well."
The Tigers still feel they need to work on other aspects of their game.
"Our possession hasn't been too great lately," Barlow said. "We've given away a lot of balls that we need to take care of. We're fortunate that we haven't been punished more often for giving careless balls away, especially in the midfield and coming out of the back.
"I think our possession still needs to come a long ways, especially against teams that are very strong defensively like Dartmouth."
The Big Green has a lot of motivation to come out strong this weekend against the Tigers. After opening its season with a 2-1 win over Sacred Heart and a 3-1 victory over Northeastern, the Big Green had its hat handed to it this weekend by Boston University and Stanford. The Big Green didn't score a single goal in either game and gave up a total of nine.
"They had a rough weekend last weekend," Barlow said, "so they're going to try to get on top of us early and we've got to be prepared to deal with them."
The Tigers know what their old opponent is capable of, and hope to prevent any Dartmouth thoughts of changing their losing ways.
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