Men's Soccer: Walburn nets game-winner

NEW YORK — As time expired on Saturday night and Columbia players fell to the turf in disappointment and disbelief, the men’s soccer team breathed a collective sigh of relief. The Tigers (3-0 Ivy League, 8-3-1 overall) had just pulled together a 3-2 victory over Columbia (0-3, 4-7-1) in a game in which they were, for the most part, outplayed by the home team.

“We’ll take it,” head coach Jim Barlow ’91 said. “We grinded out a win in a game where we probably didn’t deserve the result.”

For Princeton, which currently shares first place in the Ivy League with Penn, the victory extended its current win streak to seven games. The Tigers’ offense has scored three goals in each one of these games, and their defense has allowed just five goals over that span. Still, the Tigers’ recent successes may have left them feeling slightly overconfident, which showed on the pitch on Saturday.

“We were on a six-game win streak and didn’t have the right attitude, and I think they got after us,” said senior goalkeeper Sean Lynch, who recorded six saves, including one off a hard, looping shot by defender Hayden Johns, which Lynch just managed to tip over the crossbar. “At practice, we’ve been getting a little too cocky, and we need to reassess where we are. We are the best team in the league, but we need to prove that every day in practice and every day on the field.”

Princeton may have let loose a bit after junior forward Antoine Hoppenot scored the game’s first goal in the 31st minute, tapping in a feed from freshman defender Patrick O’Neil.

The Tigers managed to hold on to their lead for the remainder of the first half, but in the 62nd minute, Columbia’s star midfielder, Francois Anderson, laid down a perfect cross to freshman midfielder David Najem, who kicked it powerfully over Lynch’s head. Less than a minute later it was Anderson again, taking the entire Princeton defense by surprise by launching a line-drive kick from well behind the box, which landed past a diving Lynch.

“That’s what special players do,” Lynch said of Anderson’s goal. “I don’t think any keeper, any defender, is getting to that. It’s just a great play, and we could have done a better job of not letting him get to the ball, but that’s what happens.”

For the first time since facing a 1-0 deficit in the first half against Richmond three weeks ago, the Tigers were losing to their opponents. Barlow responded by moving senior defender Teddy Schneider into the midfield position — leaving only three men on defense — thus allowing for an extra forward. While Columbia dominated possession for the first hour of play, after this move, Princeton began to control the ball more. “That let us do a little more on the attack and let us get that second goal,” senior midfielder Josh Walburn said.

The Tigers followed with a series of strong attacks — including a forceful header by sophomore forward Matt Sanner, off a cross from Hoppenot, that went in the goal but was ruled offsides — before finally gaining the equalizer in the 77th minute, when senior defender Benjamin Burton knocked in the rebound off a blocked shot by senior midfielder Brandon Busch, who was credited with the assist.

The Tigers secured the game five minutes later, when — after a foul was called on Columbia right outside the box — Walburn’s free kick sailed past the Lions’ wall and to the right of 6-foot-6-inch goalkeeper Alex Aurrichio.

“I saw that they had left a gap in the wall, so I decided to shoot it and try to hit the hole, and it went in,” Walburn said.

With a full week off before next Sunday’s homecoming match against Harvard, Barlow said, the Tigers are set for “a really hard, good week of training.” While he credited Columbia with a well-played match, he noted that the Tigers came out on top despite significant struggles.

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“Today was a good wake-up call,” Barlow said. “Good teams find ways to win even when they’re not playing well and when the other team’s outplaying them, and tonight — thanks to restarts, a long throw-in and a free kick — we were able to get a couple scrappy goals that helped us get a win.”