Men's soccer loses third-straight game to homestanding Lions

Columbia has Princeton's number. And they don't appear as if they're ready to give it up anytime soon.

In the Lions' (3-3-1 overall, 1-0-0 Ivy League) league opener against the visiting men's soccer team (4-3-0, 0-2-0), Columbia maintained its dominance over Princeton by winning 1-0 — its seventh straight victory over the Tigers.

Princeton continued its disappointing slide, dropping its third straight game. In those three games, the Tigers have been outscored by a margin of six to one. In fact, this was the second game in a row in which Princeton failed to score a single goal, even though it outshot the Lions 25 to nine.

Columbia's defense proved to be just too much for the Tigers. The Lions' defenders have found a groove lately, while the Princeton offense has found itself in a funk. Columbia recorded its fourth shutout in five games — having given up only one goal in its last 513 minutes of play. And for the third year in a row the Lions recorded a shutout victory over the Tigers.

"They're a pretty good defensive team," junior defender Graeme Rein said. "They've got a bunch of big physical guys in the back that are hard to get by and hard to get good shots in on."

Columbia was able to concentrate even further on its defense because of what its offense provided in just the third minute of play — a very early goal.

Lion forward Leslie Fitzpatrick dribbled the ball down the right side of the field until he reached the 18-yard line. From there, he crossed the ball to the center of the field where midfielder Michael Ching was waiting. Ching snapped the ball right out of the air, volleying the pass into the upper-right corner of the net.

The quick goal by a Columbia offense that had averaged 0.5 goals per game so far this season stunned the Tigers.

"We weren't ready," junior forward Mike Nugent said. "It's tough when you give up an early goal against a team like that. If you don't give up an early goal, they'll still have to go forward a bit, but they were now able to sit back and play with a 1-0 lead, and they kept a lot of numbers behind the ball."

Last line of defense

The Lions stacked their defense from there on in, and were able to rely on goalkeeper Matt Hill to preserve the shutout. Hill was outstanding for Columbia as he faced 25 shots and made nine saves. Princeton's keeper, sophomore Jason White, made only one save on nine shots.

But White again received no support from the offense, which could not end its frustrating drought on Saturday.

Despite the difficulties, the team cannot pinpoint any one problem as to why the offense is struggling to put the ball into the net.

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"I think we just don't concentrate as much in the final third [of the field]," Nugent said. "We do well in the midfield and getting the ball up there but we lose concentration when it's time to make the final pass or shot and score a goal.

"We're not a good team right now in terms of finding ways to score goals."

The mood of the team after the game was what was to be expected after starting out 0-2 in the Ivy League — frustrated, depressed and upset, but still confident.

"We're not going to give up on the season," Nugent said. "We've worked hard for over a month now, and we're not going to give up now just because of an 0-2 record in the Ivy League. We still feel confident we can win games."