Men's soccer wins two Ivy games, ties power Indiana over break

Two years ago, the men's soccer team had possibly the best season in Princeton history. The Tigers won the Ivy League title, but lost to Virginia in double overtime in he first round of the NCAA tournament. That year, Indiana won the NCAA title.

The 2001 Tigers may be better than the 1999 squad. Princeton proved that by tying No. 4 Indiana, 1-1, on Oct. 28. Though the Tigers settled for a tie with the Hoosiers, they clearly outplayed the visiting powerhouse, virtually guaranteeing themselves a favorable place in the NCAA tournament.

Not only did Princeton (8-2-5 overall, 4-1-1 Ivy League) assert itself on the national scene, but the Tigers also put themselves into a position to win the Ivy League title for the second time in three years. The day before the Indiana matchup, Princeton beat Cornell, 2-1, at home and in the Tigers' last game of the break, they stomped Penn, 3-0, Nov. 3 in Philadelphia. In between the two games, on Halloween night the Tigers whipped Villanova, 3-0, on the Philly Main Line.

The win over the Big Red (4-4-2, 0-3-2) went to double overtime before senior forward Mike Nugent broke the deadlock with less than four minutes remaining.

That would be the Tigers' last mediocre effort of the break. Midfielder Matt Behncke had two goals and two assists in Princeton's two 3-0 drubbings to close out the break. Senior defender Will Rodgers scored his first career goal against Villanova, and junior defender Matt Douglas got his first of the year in the win over Penn (6-7-1, 2-3).

But it was the tie with Indiana (12-3-1) that was the most telling result of the break. The numbers tell the story, as the Tigers dominated play throughout. Princeton outshot Indiana, 19-13, but more impressively, the Tigers had 11 corner kicks. The Hoosiers had one.

"A tie is always better than a loss," head coach Jim Barlow said. "But we played well enough to win today; we played as well as we have all year."

Given Indiana's lofty ranking, some might have thought that 2000 All-America Pat Noonen's goal 27 minutes, 22 seconds into the game was the start of a deluge, but the heavy stuff never came down.

Instead, Princeton answered 11 minutes later when Nugent took a cross from Douglas, beat two defenders and Indiana keeper Colin Rodgers for the tying score at the 39:14 mark. Neither team found the back of the net in the 62 minutes after those first-half scores, leaving the Tigers with a dissatisfying but well-played tie.

"It was a big weekend for us," Nugent said. "It would have been real nice to pick up a victory here today, especially considering the fact that we dominated play for most of the game."

After the break's contests, Princeton has not been beaten in eight-straight games. The Tigers' last loss was at the hands of Harvard on Oct. 6, an outcome that gave the Crimson a commanding edge in the Ivy League race. While Princeton was busy beating Cornell on Oct. 27, however, Harvard was at work losing to Dartmouth, 1-0.

The Crimson now stand at 4-1 in the conference. Princeton trails at 4-1-1. The Tigers' only remaining Ivy game is against Yale on Nov. 10. The Crimson have two games remaining, one against Penn on Nov. 10, the other against Brown on Nov. 17. If Princeton ties or beats Yale, and Harvard loses either of its games, Princeton will be the Ivy League champion for the second time in three years.