Hoping to end tie streak, m. soccer meets Drexel and La Salle

Two games into the season and the men's soccer team is already setting records — just not the kind it was hoping for. With two opening-weekend ties, the 2002 Tigers became the first Princeton men's soccer team ever to start its season 0-0-2.

Although head coach Jim Barlow '91 said that the team "played well enough to win" in both games, the Tigers failed to capitalize on many scoring opportunities, and came out of the weekend winless.

According to senior goalkeeper and captain Jason White, that will simply not be acceptable this weekend when Princeton travels to Penn to take on Drexel and La Salle.

"There's no excuse for not getting both of these," White said. "We'll be unhappy if we don't come out of this weekend with two wins."

The Tigers first spring into action today at noon with a game against Drexel (4-1), a team riding high on a four-game winning streak.

Although Princeton and Drexel do not have many opponents in common, one of the teams that the Dragons defeated during their streak is No. 14 Fairleigh Dickinson — the same Fairleigh Dickinson that came back late against the Tigers last weekend to steal a 2-2 tie.

In a tight game, Drexel got the win on the strength of goals by attacker Kevin Domanski and standout senior Pete Pittaoulis. Pittaoulis was honored this week as the Philadelphia Soccer Seven's Player of the Week, and has three goals and an assist in the Dragons' first five games.

Drexel's only loss this season came at the hands of La Salle, who the Tigers will take on this Sunday at noon.

The Explorers (1-3-1) are also a part of the Soccer Seven but have struggled early since their opening-day win over Drexel.

La Salle, picked to finish tenth in the Atlantic 10 Conference and seventh in the Soccer Seven, has dropped three one-goal games in its first five and seems to have a weakness for letting in the late one.

So where does Princeton fit into all of this?

Although the Tigers have not played either Drexel or La Salle recently, all three are members of the mid-Atlantic region of the National Collegiate Athletic Association. Should Princeton not win the Ivy League and the automatic NCAA tournament bid that goes with it, the Tigers' record within their region would be one of the most important factors in determining whether or not they would be invited to the tournament.

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This weekend is also an important chance to pick up some momentum before getting into the all-important Ivy League portion of the season.

Drexel and La Salle will pose a different sort of challenge to the Tigers than they are used to.

"Both teams are very scrappy and defensive," White said. "They rely on their athleticism rather than playing a skills game. We don't know exactly what to expect from either one."

As Princeton has no specific game plan for slaying the Dragons and stopping the Explorers in their tracks, the Tigers have been working on fine-tuning their game in practice.

"We're looking to use our outside midfielders more and switch the ball from side to side more frequently," junior defender and captain Jeff Hare said.

Even more importantly, Princeton wants to convert more of its opportunities around the net. "We really need to finish on our chances, we got a lot of them last weekend," Hare said.

When it comes down to it, in the end Princeton's aspirations for this weekend can be summed up by White.

"We just want to get things right," he said.

Should they do that, the Tigers will leave Philadelphia with two wins in their pockets and a new lease on a still-young season.