Two second half goals lift w. soccer over Boston Univ.

As the women's soccer season heads into the final straightaway, each game can mean the difference between a postseason berth and an early Thanksgiving vacation. Teams get desperate, players get choppy and emotion can hurt as much as it helps.

Last night, the Tigers managed to avoid these tragic pitfalls, keeping their heads and their cool as they downed visiting Boston University, 2-0, at Lourie-Love Field.

In the first half, Princeton (8-1-2 overall, 2-1 Ivy League) had trouble controlling possession as the Terriers (6-4-4) clogged the middle of the field. Both team's best opportunities of the period came off corner kicks, as live play yielded few dangerous chances.

Fifteen minutes before intermission, the Tigers nearly got on the board. Off a corner kick, BU keeper Jessica Clinton jumped up to nab the ball and came down with possession. She appeared to step back into the net with the ball, crossing the plane of the goal, but the referee called for play to continue.

"They scouted us really well in the first half," head coach Julie Shackford said. "They made it tough for us to possess. Toward the end of the first half, we just decided to send our forwards, and I think that was a key to the second half."

Seven minutes into the second frame, the strategy paid its first dividend. Junior midfielder Elizabeth Pillion had the ball at midfield as junior defender Janine Willis overlapped her.

"I got the ball from 'Pills,'" Willis said, "and took it all the way to the end line. I crossed it and 'Es' headed it in."

"Es," of course, is the nickname for junior forward Esmeralda Negron. With the goal, Negron, already the team's leading scorer, pushed her season total to nine.

After the Tigers narrowly missed a scoring opportunity with 21 minutes to play, the team got its insurance goal five minutes later. Junior midfielder Kristina Fontanez beat her defender up the right flank and let go a cross. Clinton dove, but came up empty as players from both teams crashed the net. The ball appeared to hit off of a Terrier defender before squirming into the net, but sophomore midfielder Emily Behncke, who was also in the area, got credit for the goal.

"All these teams are coming in and playing to not let us play," Shackford said. "But we sorted it out tonight. I think it's a compliment that teams are playing us so tough."

"It wasn't our best game," Willis added. "We were still tired from Saturday's game, but we grinded it out to the end."

Junior midfielder Catherine Byrd saw her first significant time of the season last night. Shackford utilized Byrd in a man-marking assignment, which allowed senior midfielder Liz Bell more freedom to roam.

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Sophomore midfielder Maura Gallagher sat out the game with a nagging knee injury. She is expected to be ready for Friday night's league game against Columbia.