Men's Soccer: Late goal keeps Princeton winless in Ivies

For five brief minutes on Saturday night at Roberts Stadium, the men’s soccer team held onto the hope that it could turn its season around and contend for the Ivy League title. But when Columbia scored the go-ahead goal in the 89th minute of play, those hopes vanished just as quickly as they had come for a Princeton team that finds itself winless and tied with Harvard for last place in the conference.

The Lions (5-6-1 overall, 2-1 Ivy League) had scored early and commanded a 1-0 lead for almost 70 minutes, but Princeton (3-8-1, 0-3), eager to take its first Ivy win, mounted a strong offensive campaign throughout the second half. The Tigers’ aggressive play and quick passing drew seven fouls — including four yellow cards — from Columbia in the second half, culminating in a fateful foul in the 83rd minute that set the Tigers up for the comeback.

After the referees handed out the final yellow card of the particularly dirty match to Columbia defender Will Young, they awarded Princeton a free kick just outside the box. With the pressure on for the Tigers to score the equalizer, sophomore defender Chris Benedict took the kick and went straight for the left side of the wall of Columbia defenders directly in front of him.

“I’ve had success trying to power it into the left side,” Benedict said. “That’s what I was going for, but at the same time I knew we had at least four guys in the back, so if it rattled around, we were in there.”

Benedict’s kick hit off the defenders and bounced straight to the feet of junior forward Matt Sanner. Before the defenders, with their backs to the goal, realized where the ball had gone, Sanner broke free of the marker to his left and shot the ball on the ground to the right of Columbia goalkeeper Alexander Aurrichio. The ball found the back of the net, and the 1-1 game seemed to be headed for overtime.

But with less than two minutes of play remaining, Columbia midfielder Mike Mazzullo lobbed a pass into the right side of the box. Young picked up the ball and crossed left to forward Will Stamatis, who was unmarked near the left goalpost. Stamatis powered the ball over junior goalkeeper Max Gallin’s head and into the net of the upper left 90 and gave the Lions a 2-1 lead they would not relinquish.

“It’s just a heartbreaker because we needed this one,” Benedict said. “To give up one with under two minutes left is just really disappointing. We fought so hard in the second half to get that goal back that to let one up is just terrible to see.”

The game began promisingly for the Tigers, with Sanner and senior forward Antoine Hoppenot demonstrating chemistry up top and getting good shots off in the first 10 minutes. Though Princeton made the more threatening runs early in the game, Mazzulo’s 17th minute 30-yard cross-field pass made it past a Tiger defense that seemed to be expecting a shorter play. The ball found midfielder Henning Sauerbier on the left side of the box, and his high looping shot went over Gallin’s head and into the upper-right end of the netting.

Princeton’s less aggressive offense made notably fewer dangerous runs in the first half after the Lions’ goal, but came out very strong in the second half. Between long throw-ins from junior captain and defender Mark Linnville and eight corner kicks, the Tigers had numerous opportunities inside the box and came very close on many occasions. But Columbia kept a lot of defenders back, Aurrichio was not hesitant to leave his post to trap the ball and the visitors found a way to clear the danger every time.

“Columbia’s pretty physical in the box and they made it hard for us to have room to get on the end of things,” head coach Jim Barlow ’91 said. “We can learn a lot from their guys. They don’t need a lot of chances to get goals, and we need a million lately.”

The loss all but ended the 2010 Ivy League champions’ quest to defend their title. Winless after three conference games, Princeton would most likely have to win its remaining four Ivy matches to merit consideration for an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament. But with an undefeated Cornell — who finished in the cellar last season — sitting in first place, Barlow said that winning the conference title is a long shot.

“At 4-3, there’s not much chance of winning the league,” Barlow said. “But we just have to try and go 4-3. What else can we do?”