Men's soccer battles to another scoreless tie

Halloween is still a few weeks away, but for the men's soccer team's offense, October is shaping up to be a nightmare already.

For the second straight game the Tigers' offense couldn't manage a goal and found themselves bailed out by their defense as the team salvaged a 0-0 tie last night against American at Lourie-Love Field.

The Tigers now have a scoreless streak at 248 minutes, 44 seconds going back to a 4-1 win over Wofford on Sept. 26.

"Enough with these ties," freshman defender Matt Kontos said, "we have to start winning."

The game against American was surprisingly competetive, considering the outcome, but the team took little consolation.

"We're always disappointed when we don't win," head coach Jim Barlow '91 said. "It was a back-and-forth game, and both teams had chances."

For the Tigers (4-2-3 overall) those chances came mainly in the second half. Princeton managed no shots on goals in the first half, coming closest to scoring when junior midfielder Ben Young sailed a shot just over the net with 12:40 left in the first half. It would take until there were under two minutes remaining in regulation for the team to seriously threaten again, when, led by senior forward Ryan Rich, the Tigers nearly scored in a furious scrum around the net. Rich led the team in shots on goal with three.

The Eagles (6-4-2) benefitted late from the solid play of senior goalkeeper Thomas Myers, who notched his fifth shutout of the season. He was matched by Tiger senior goalkeeper Erik White, who completed his fourth shutout of the season and kept the Tigers in the game.

In the overtime periods, both teams responded with furious charges, but despite chances on both sides neither team could convert. In the first overtime, the Tigers had a four-on-two with one minute left but coudn't get a shot by Myers.

Despite the solid defensive play, the team recognized that its offense would have to start stepping up and finishing on its chances.

"We can't continue to count on our defense to get shutouts," senior midfielder Teddy van Beuren said. "We need to be more consistent and put balls away."

Barlow also noted the importance of getting the little things right as games start taking on more and more significance. "In games that go faster," he said, "those details need to go right."

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The team now has to shift its focus to Saturday's big match-up against Ivy League-rival and defending conference champ Brown.

If the Tigers are going to win, they'll first have to score a goal, something that they haven't quite figured out how to do in this October nightmare. Waking up, as van Beuren pointed out, though, is not that hard to do.

"We need to win," he said. "Flat out we need to win."