Graduation leaves offensive void

This season, men's soccer is celebrating tradition while simultaneously coping with significant changes in the roster and lineup of just a year ago.

Now 100 years old, the program welcomed six new Tigers to the squad when it opened its centennial season with a 0-0 stalemate against Stanford Sept. 1. With a subsequent 3-1 win against Loyola Sept. 3 on the road and a nailbiting 1-0 victory over American Sept. 8, Princeton (2-1-1 overall) has thus far fallen only to No. 17 Fairleigh Dickinson in a 3-0 defeat Sept. 12.

Now four games into the season, the six new Tigers and the 19 returning players are continually adapting and looking for new ways to fill the void left by last years' seniors, especially on the offensive end. The graduation of offensively-minded Adrian Melville, Darren Spicer, Ben Young and Alex Reison — who were all regular starters — has left the field wide open for the team to develop new weapons.

Freshmen attacking midfielder Devin Muntz and outside midfielder Ben Harms bring a new injection of talent into the front lineup and each has already notched an assist.

"[Muntz] is a good playmaker — he doesn't give the ball away and he's always in a good spots, so he's a great outlet for the defenders ... it's nice to have his feet and his vision in the middle of the midfield," said head coach Jim Barlow '91, a former standout soccer player for the Tigers who has led the team since 1996.

Harms also brings playmaking abilities to the midfield and has already set up one goal against Loyola in addition to creating several other threatening opportunities with his dangerous crosses.

While new talent has helped push the ball up the field, all four of Princeton's goals so far this season have come from returning players. Junior midfielder Dan Cummins, senior forward Zach Schwarz and junior midfielder Mike Jester have collectively netted all of the Tigers' goals, with Cummins scoring twice.

While Schwarz was a regular starter for the team last season, Cummins made appearances in only six games, including two starts, and Jester saw brief time in just five games off the bench.

"Some of the guys that didn't see a lot of time last year came with a real hunger this year to get in the top 11 and to help our team win games," Barlow said.

Last season, when Cummins appeared in six games, he played primarily on defense. His enthusiasm and assertive preseason play prompted Coach Barlow to give him a more attacking-oriented position. Now two goals and an assist later, Cummins' offensive statistics are the most impressive on the team.

This new spark from players like Cummins illuminates the extraordinary depth of the team. This depth exists not only offensively for the Tigers but all the way back to the goal line.

Senior Justin Oppenheimer is starting in goal for the first time in his career this season and allowed just one goal in Princeton's first three games.

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His new defensive presence on the field is complemented by the veteran line of defenders supporting him. All starters last year, senior captain Jame Wunsch and juniors Matt Kontos and Robbie Morgenroth bring tested skill, experience and leadership to form a solid last line against attacking opponents.

Despite the experience of the defense, the back line as well as the more inexperienced attackers continue to hone in on all aspects of their game in practice to foster solid play from the forwards all the way back to goal.

"Generally our practices have been very similar to how they were last year, not particularly focused on offense or defense," Cummins said. "It's more [that] we get in sort of possession-type games ... small-sided games where you have to worry about both."

Given Princeton's success thus far, the Tigers look forward vying for a top finish in the Ivy League. Princeton's grueling schedule gives the Tigers little margin for error. In Thursday's match against Fairleigh Dickinson, Princeton faced off against the first of a series of cutthroat perennial top-20 programs. With upcoming matches against Ivy League powerhouses like Dartmouth, Brown and Yale, as well as top teams like Seton Hall, Rutgers and St. John's, the Tigers will have their hands full from here on out.

"This is one of the years where any of the eight teams can win [the Ivies]," Barlow said. "Harvard in particular is scoring a ton of goals; they have two guys from the attack that took the year off last year and are back."

While Princeton has eked out some close games so far this season, including coming up from behind in the second half against Loyola on the road, the team is still working out kinks. Fresh off a tough 3-0 loss to Fairfield Dickinson, players still remain confident in the team's ability to continue to mature.

"I think ... [Fairleigh Dickinson] deserved to win, but if we got the chance to play it again, I don't think it would be the same," Cummins said. "We made mistakes that we shouldn't have ... both as a team and individually, and it just went wrong and all we can do is forget about it and worry about Friday."

The Tigers have just three more games before the Ivy League season opens on Sept.23 against Yale. Besides the league opener, an important test will come Sept. 30 when Princeton squares off against Dartmouth at home. Throughout that day, the official 100th year of Princeton soccer celebration will take place. With all soccer alumni invited to attend the match and reception as well as participate in alumni games, the Tigers will look to put their best game on for a special crowd.

This season also marks the last one in which Lourie-Love Field will be used by the team. Princeton hopes to break ground on a new stadium and stadium complex this spring which is projected to be available for use in fall 2008, with uncertain plans for next year's campaign.

The Tigers boast the skill to fight in enduring matches and make the September 30 match and all the other games this season at Lourie-Love into real crowd-pleasers. The question remains, though, as to which individual players will step up to lead the team offensively.

"We're still figuring out who's going to be stepping up to take care of the goal scoring," Barlow said. "It may be the case this year that the goals have to come from a lot of different people — that's a quality of good teams that different people step up in different games."