Early deficit too much for men's soccer in two-goal loss to Hartwick

For the past two weeks, the men's soccer team has focused on not letting a sudden momentum change ruin the game for it. But just when the team looked as if it had moved past its sloppy play, the Tiger defense allowed three goals in 10 minutes during Saturday's 3-1 loss to Hartwick.

After Wednesday's exciting 3-2 win over American, it seemed as if the Tigers (2-6-2 overall, 0-2 Ivy League) had found their style of play and were at the beginning of a winning streak. But that win streak only lasted one game and Princeton has regressed back to the team that dropped four in a row before taking down American.

The Tigers began the game strong and appeared to be carrying their momentum from Wednesday's win. But the entire mood of the game changed when the referee called a handball in the box against a Tiger defenseman midway through the first half.

This call gave Hartwick a penalty shot right in front of the Tiger goal. The referee had the option to let the game continue after the inadvertent handball, but he whistled the Tigers for the penalty and at 20 minutes and 30 seconds, Hartwick's Rob Cantana put the free shot in the net and gave Hartwick a 1-0 lead.

Up to that point the Tigers were playing very clean and controlled ball, but with the sudden turn in events, the Tigers lost all of their momentum and started to make mistakes. At 27:04, Hartwick's Mike Piagentini scored his first of two unassisted goals. Three minutes later, at 30:04, Piagentini scored his second unassisted goal of the game, and put the Tigers in an inescapable 3-0 hole.

"We were playing very strong soccer for the first 20 minutes, but after that penalty goal we went flat for 10 minutes. It was that 10 minute stretch in the first half where we lost the game," head coach Jim Barlow '91 said.

With a 3-0 lead, Hartwick went into a defensive shift and spent the rest of the game protecting its lead. The Tigers tried to chip away at the lead, but Hartwick could afford to keep most of its players on defense, making a three-goal comeback very unlikely.

At 78:34, the Tigers finally got on the scoreboard. Junior midfielder Gianfranco Tripicchio crossed a pass to freshman midfielder Alex Reison nine yards in front of the Hartwick goal, and Reison finally broke the shutout with his second goal of the season. But with less than 12 minutes remaining, the one goal was not enough to affect the game.

Hartwick's talent did not surprise Princeton, but the Tigers were surprised by the way they let the game get away from them in a span of 10 minutes. That this happened in senior captain Jason White's first game back after he was injured in the Dartmouth game on Sept. 28 was even more surprising. But White never reached 100 percent for the game, and after re-aggravating his injury he left the game before the beginning of the second half.

"Jason said that he felt great before the game," Barlow said, "but after a couple of punts into the game, he re-injured himself. He ended up playing the whole half in pain."

Besides the initial disappointment of losing the game, Barlowwas upset that his team had made the same mental lapses that it encountered much earlier in the season.

"It is very frustrating, because I feel like we are taking a step backwards," Barlow said. "We need to handle that situation better. Instead of allowing three goals during the stretch, we must limit them the one goal."

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Earlier in the season this weak play was attributed to inexperience, but 10 games into the season, the Tigers can no longer use inexperience as its crutch to lean on. "We thought we had improved from this stage, but the 10 minute stretch really hurt us," Barlow said.

Princeton continues its difficult schedule this week when it travels down to Baltimore to play Loyola on Tuesday afternoon. The Tigers then resume their difficult Ivy League schedule by playing Brown on Friday evening at Lourie-Love field. Already down 0-2 in the league, the Tigers need to rebound from Saturday's disappointment to prepare for a very strong Brown team.