Second-half surge fails to net equalizer

The men's soccer team was edged by Dartmouth, 1-0, on Saturday in Hanover, N.H., to close out the 2007 campaign. Princeton (5-10-2 overall, 3-4-0 Ivy League) finished fourth in the Ivy League along with Penn.

Dartmouth (11-4-2, 5-1-1) finished second in league play, one point ahead of No. 15 Harvard and six points behind No. 4 Brown, who finished a perfect 7-0-0 in league play. The Tigers played all three teams very closely, even leading late against Brown and Harvard, but in all three games Princeton fell by one-goal margins.

Junior goalkeeper Joe Walter was peppered early and often by Dartmouth's offense, being forced into four saves in the first thirty minutes and seven in the first half.

The Big Green finally converted in the 30th minute, when Daniel Keat evaded a fallen Princeton defender and crossed to Dani Rothenberg, whose blocked attempt fell to the feet of Craig Henderson. Henderson finished from close range.

"The first 20 to 25 minutes of the game Dartmouth came at us pretty hard," head coach Jim Barlow '91 said. "We were a little unorganized."

Dartmouth outshot the Tigers by a staggering 13-1 in the first half, with freshman midfielder Teddy Schneider's high effort in the 16th minute the only Princeton shot.

The Tigers turned on the offensive heat in the second half and outshot the Big Green 7-3, but could not find the equalizer. Senior co-captain and forward Kyle McHugh made a shot that was saved from close range in the 60th minute, while in the 70th minute the Dartmouth defense cleared a rebound off the line after goalkeeper Sean Milligan saved another shot from McHugh.

Freshman forward Brandon Busch had the last equalizing opportunity, but his shot was parried by Milligan with 25 seconds remaining in the game. He finished with three saves, while Walter was forced into eight.

"There were several occasions where we got behind their defense," Barlow said. "But it was a little frustrating that we couldn't put one away."

Senior co-captain and defender Matt Kontos' move to central defense in the second half led a stalwart defensive effort as Dartmouth struggled.

"I thought we regrouped well towards the end of the first half," Barlow said. "In the second half Dartmouth didn't cause us any problems, and our defenders were beating their guys to nearly every ball."

Princeton was outshot 16-8 for the game, including 9-3 on target, while the Big Green earned nine corner kicks to the Tigers' five. The shot differential, however, is not indicative of a great disparity between the teams, as many "shots" recorded in the box score were misguided crosses or services.

Get the best of the ‘Prince’ delivered straight to your inbox. Subscribe now »

Saturday's contest was the last game for Princeton's eight seniors, including McHugh, who led this year's squad with seven goals. Busch and Schneider were next, with three goals apiece.

Since starting the season with six straight losses, the Tigers have gone 5-4-2.

"It was the kind of year that it would've been easy to get discouraged," Barlow said. "But we continued to get better throughout the year, and the seniors kept it together, and kept training hard every day."

Barlow also mentioned that six freshmen got regular playing time this year, while the seniors were crucial to the rookies' development as college soccer players.

Ivy champs Brown earned an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament, while both Dartmouth and Harvard hope to earn at-large bids to the 48-team competition. Brown needed an extra-time winner against Columbia to preserve its season sweep last Saturday, while Harvard rolled Yale, 4-0.

Princeton all but eliminated itself from an at-large bid with its poor season start, meaning it would have had to win the league to get into the tournament.

"We put a lot of pressure on ourselves with the poor start — to have to win every Ivy game," Barlow said. "We know we can play with [Brown, Dartmouth and Harvard], but in the end we didn't quite finish the job."

While it might be easy to lament Princeton's poor start or close losses to its rivals, one must also remember that a season ago the Tigers finished last in the league. The improvement — not only from last year, but also from the beginning of this season — in the face of bad luck and adversity can only be commended.