Men's Soccer: Conference hopes still alive with win

Worn down by a week of midterms, the men’s soccer team played to a draw with Cornell, 1-1, on Halloween, but after a week devoted solely to training, it bounced back with a 3-1 victory over Penn on Saturday.

Against Cornell, the Tigers (8-5-3 overall, 3-2-1 Ivy League) played in abnormally warm and drizzly conditions and never quite looked like themselves on the field.

“It wasn’t a great week of training with midterms,” head coach Jim Barlow ’91 said. “It’s really hard, and it’s hard every year … It makes it hard to feel like the preparation is going as well as it needs to, and we just have to find a way to get a result, but we didn’t quite get it done tonight. I don’t think we played poorly, but we’ve certainly played better.”

The game started off slowly, and neither Princeton nor Cornell (5-4-5, 0-2-3) showed a distinct offensive advantage. The rain cleared with around five minutes left in the half, and it held off just long enough for the Tigers to score their first goal. The referee called a foul as a Cornell player pulled junior midfielder Josh Walburn’s jersey and roughed him up just outside the box. Walburn took the free kick, which was saved by Cornell goalie Rick Pflasterer, but sophomore forward Antoine Hoppenot was there for the finishing touch, putting Princeton up 1-0. Walburn and freshman forward Lester Nare recorded assists.

Halfway through the second half, Cornell responded as the wind picked up, blowing against the Tigers’ goal. Forward Matt Bouraee took advantage of the Big Red’s offensive press, unleashing a strike that slid just underneath junior goalie Sean Lynch and into the back of the net.

“To have a lead at home in the second half against a team that is not getting a lot of chances — you can’t give up a goal on a counter, and that’s what we did,” Barlow said. “Cornell deserves a lot of credit because I think they really fought hard and make it hard to get things going, especially in the final third. They got a good goal, and they could’ve very easily scored a second one as well.”

Cornell and Princeton each had another quality scoring opportunity in the game. With five minutes left in regulation time, a Cornell forward went one-on-one with Lynch and eased his shot past the goalkeeper, but the shot was deflected by junior defender Ben Burton near the goal line. The Tigers got their final chance in the second overtime as freshman forward Matt Sanner sent a bullet to the upper corner that ricocheted off the angle of the goal frame.

In usual form, Princeton dominated Cornell statistically, outshooting the Big Red, 24-13. This loss cemented Cornell’s spot at the bottom of the Ivy League standings.

Against Penn (6-7-3, 2-3-1), the Tigers were more rested and focused. With any more losses or ties for the Tigers, their chances of an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament could disappear. Under this pressure, Princeton thrived, earning a solid 3-1 victory that was also the 100th in Barlow’s career.

“It was nice to have a week of training without worrying about school,” senior captain and midfielder Devin Muntz. “We can focus a lot more on soccer and not worry about anything else going on. I think that helped out a lot. We just went into the game knowing that we had to get the win and went and played hard.”

Sanner assisted on what would have been Hoppenot’s seventh goal of the season had it not been for an offsides call. Hoppenot responded well, however, rebounding Walburn’s long shot in the 23rd minute and turning it into a 1-0 advantage for Princeton. Toward the end of the first half, Hoppenot posted an assist on senior forward Ben Harms’ goal.

Up 2-0 at the half, the Tigers let their guard down early in the second.

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“We dominated the first half, but they came at us pretty hard in the first 20 or 25 minutes of the second half. That’s where we gave up the lone goal,” Muntz said.

About 10 minutes in, Penn scored off a corner kick. Despite several attempts and a narrow miss off a free kick, the Quakers were unable to convert their newfound energy into a comeback. Sanner, assisted by Walburn, sealed the win for the Tigers in the 62nd minute.

“After we scored our third goal, the momentum shifted,” Muntz said. “We were able to withstand their last barrage of attempts.”

Despite the lopsided final score, both teams ended with 14 shots and were relatively even on saves and fouls. Harms dominated offensively with four shots, all of which were on goal. This past week, Harms was named to the “ESPN The Magazine” Second-Team Academic All-District to recognize his excellence as a student-athlete.

The win keeps the Tigers in the running for an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament, but their fate will depend on how they perform against Yale in their final regular-season game and on how other teams fare in the coming days. Less likely but still possible, Princeton could share a part of the Ivy title with three other teams if it tops Yale, if Penn manages to defeat Harvard and if Brown and Dartmouth tie.