M. soccer plays Dartmouth to scoreless tie at home

Soccer has often been called the "beautiful game" by its fans. But on Saturday, when the men's soccer team hosted Dartmouth in its Ivy League opener at Lourie-Love Field, the game was anything but beautiful, as the Tigers (4-2-2 overall, 0-0-1 Ivy League) battled Dartmouth (2-1-4, 0-0-1) to a 0-0 tie.

The result came as a disappointment to the Tigers, as they were confident that they could have won the game.

"It was a tough game, and we didn't really play well," sophomore midfielder Jame Wunsch said. "We got beat in the midfield and couldn't really get our offense going."

Princeton only managed four shots on the day, three by junior forward Darren Spicer, two of which were on goal, and one by junior midfielder Ben Young. The Tigers did not even get their first shot on goal until the 57th minute.

Princeton's best chance came in 70th minute, when Young appeared to have beaten the defense on a through ball. He was promptly tripped up by defender Oliver Harker-Smith and went down a couple of yards inside the penalty box.

The crowd went wild expecting a penalty kick, but in a questionable call the referee decided to give the Tigers a free kick outside of the box. The linesman who witnessed the play more closely failed to say anything. Harker-Smith received a yellow card on the play, but the Tigers failed to convert the free kick.

The game was marked by a plethora of fouls, as the Tigers committed 25 fouls to the Big Green's 21. Dartmouth also received four yellow cards during the game.

Midway through the first overtime the tensions boiled over, when a shoving match broke out after a Princeton foul. Play was suspended for several minutes before the row was broken up by the referees.

Thta was only part of a trend. The Big Green fared slightly better on offense than Princeton, managing nine shots, including four by forward Sam Porter. Only three of those shots, however, were on goal.

The Big Green had two great chances to score in the game. The first came in the 36th minute, when Harker-Smith shot the ball just high off a Dartmouth corner kick.

Then, early in the second half, Porter crossed the ball into a dangerous position in front of the goal, but senior goalkeeper Erik White was able to slide out and gobble up the pass.

White finished the game with three saves and earned his third shutout of the season.

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"Whitey definitely came up huge for us," Wunsch said. "He saved us a few times and really dominated the goal box."

Many times during the match Dartmouth would try to play a long pass in the air, only to have it snatched by White before it could get through and do any damage.

Dartmouth goalie Rowan Anders had two saves on the day to notch his second shutout of the year.

The Tigers are in the midst of their longest homestand of the season and will host American on Wednesday before continuing their league schedule by hosting Brown on Saturday.