The men's soccer team finally found a way to score game-winning goals this weekend.
But the storyline for the offensively-challenged Tigers remained the same because the scoring charge was led by the defense.
In the final game of the Princeton Invitational on Sunday afternoon, freshman midfielder Jame Wunsch netted the game's only goal on a run from the back line to give the Tigers a 1-0 victory over Towson. The win closed out a successful weekend for Princeton in their home tournament. On Friday night, the Tigers played Loyola to a 1-1 tie at Mercer County Community College. The game had been moved from Princeton's Lourie-Love field because of rain.
Against Loyola, sophomore forward Darren Spicer led the way, scoring his second goal of the season in the 36th minute to knot the game at one. Just two minutes earlier, the Greyhounds had beaten junior goalie Eric White for the game's first goal. But Princeton's quick response sent the two teams into the half tied at one, and neither team would score for the remainder of the game.
In overtime, the two teams played to a stalemate, but not without a bit of excitement as the clock wound down. With just 24 seconds to go in the second overtime, senior midfielder Franco Trippichio rocketed a long distance shot over Loyola's keeper and into the net. But the officials ruled there was a handball on the play, negating the goal and killing the Tigers' chance at victory.
The tie was the fourth-straight between Princeton and Loyola. It also left the Tigers with a record of 1-1-1 on the season as the team headed into the tournament's final game on Sunday.
"I thought the game never slowed down, it was 100 miles an hour for 110 minutes," head coach Jim Barlow '91 said. " I think,in the first half, we did real well keeping them penned in and putting plays together and created maybe six or seven good chances, and then on their first shot of the game they scored, which is usually a real deflator. But then we bounce back and equalize within three minutes, which shows a lot of character."
The match-up of Tigers, Towson and Princeton, was the first ever between the two soccer programs. Towson entered the game with a record of 0-5-1 and had lost to Penn, 1-0, on Friday night in the first game of the Invitational.
Princeton thus entered Sunday's game expecting a victory, and they followed through by dominating Towson from the opening whistle. Princeton controlled the midfield and the air, and Towson found it difficult to get the ball out of their own end.
But Princeton remained unable to capitalize on its dominance with a goal in the first half, and the whistle blew for halftime with the teams still knotted at nil. As the second half began, the Tigers picked up where they had left off in the first half. But Princeton still could not punch in a goal.
This changed in the 59th minute when sophomore midfielder Neil Chaudhuri connected with Wunsch for the deciding goal. Chaudhuri, playing left back, settled an attempted Towson clear, beat an aggressive attacker, then spotted Wunsch from the back line making a run up the right side. Chaudhuri played a beautiful through ball to Wunsch's right foot. The freshman one-timed a shot, which was saved by the Towson keeper, but unfortunately for the visitors the rebound went straight back to the shooter. Wunsch capitalized on his chance the second time around, stuffing the rebound to become the hero of the game.
Wunsch's goal and the Tiger victory came despite the recurrence of a problem that plagued the Tigers last year — an inability to score goals. While the scoring contribution of defensive players Wunsch and Chaudhuri were welcome for the Tigers, the team is still searching for consistent finishing from its forwards. Freshman Kyle McHugh saw plenty of time up front over the weekend, and Spicer has scored two goals in four games on the season, but Barlow still seems to be looking for scorers to step up.
Outside of McHugh and Spicer, Barlow also tried senior Vincent Vitale and sophomore Alex Reison up front in parts of Sunday's game, with mixed success.
As the season continues and the Tigers move into their tough Ivy League schedule, goals will be at a premium as Princeton tries to close out tough games.
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