Overtime FGCU goal drops Tigers 1-0

For the men’s soccer team, one defensive slipup in overtime erased an entire half of momentum and caused Princeton (2-5 overall, 0-0 Ivy League) to suffer a difficult defeat to Florida Gulf Coast University (2-5-1, 0-0 ASC) on Sunday afternoon. In the fourth minute of overtime, the Eagles recovered a Tiger turnover deep in their own end. FGCU moved swiftly forward on the counterattack, stringing together several passes and working up the far sideline before finding freshman midfielder Will Suedois with space in the middle. Suedois collected the ball near the top of the Princeton box, took a touch to his left and calmly slotted the ball low toward the far post, beating senior Tiger goalkeeper Seth MacMillan’s sliding attempt and lifting the Eagles to a 1-0 victory.

“We gave away a ball that we shouldn’t have given away in the final third, and when we do that we start having numbers committed forward and that leaves gaps for them to play in,” head coach Jim Barlow ’91 said. “They played it wide, and we were a little stretched out. Their guy did a good job of cutting it toward the middle and putting it in the goal.”

The goal, Suedois’ first in his career, ended what had been a tightly fought contest for a goal, with both teams creating many scoring opportunities throughout the game. The first half began with FGCU dominating possession and creating opportunities throughout the first 20 minutes of the game. The Eagles nearly converted on a corner kick in the 15^th minute, when Princeton defenders, late to step from the far post, allowed an FGCU forward to rocket a left-footed volley just over the crossbar from close range.

“We had a really, really tough first half and put ourselves in a position to lose a close game because we started slow,” Barlow said. “I don’t know why Gulf Coast was pretty sharp in the first half, but we just weren’t ready to play today.”

But by the midpoint of the first half, momentum had shifted, with Princeton maintaining possession and nearly scoring multiple times. The Tigers almost scored a goal in the 23^th minute, when junior forward Cameron Porter lofted a chip from the sideline toward sophomore forward Thomas Sanner in the middle. Sanner took a settling touch to his right near the top of the box, but was forced off balance by his defender and lofted his shot over the bar.

Princeton continued to pressure the Eagle net during the second half, unleashing 12 shots and earning three corner kicks. Porter nearly scored on a back-heel attempt in the 81^st minute when junior midfielder Myles McGinley’s free kick from the sideline found sophomore defender Josh Miller in the box. Miller’s shot attempt was bottled up in traffic in front of the goal before slipping to Porter, whose back heel attempt was snagged by diving FGCU goalkeeper Danny George. Ultimately, the Tigers could not convert on any of their opportunities and entered overtime tied 0-0.

“We had a good second half, but in college soccer you can’t play well for 45 minutes and guarantee yourselves that you’re going to win the game,” Barlow said.

With the victory, the Eagles rounded out a strong weekend road trip with back-to-back victories. FGCU, which came into this weekend’s road trip 0-5-1, defeated Penn 3-2 in overtime Friday night. Princeton, which entered the game with momentum following a strong 4-2 home victory over FIU on Friday night, lost its final non-conference game before beginning Ivy League competition next weekend. Sunday’s matchup marked the first time Princeton and FGCU had ever competed in men’s soccer competition.

With Ivy League competition looming, the Tigers will prepare to face Dartmouth in Hanover on Saturday afternoon. The last time the two squads met, last September in Princeton, the Tigers emerged with a 2-1 overtime victory.

“Every Ivy League game is such a battle, and if we have stretches like we did in the first half today, we’re in trouble. So how you work on that is a challenge we’ll have to figure out during the week in training,” Barlow said. “We know we have the talent to compete with anyone on our schedule if we’re sharp, but we also know that we have a lot of good teams on our schedule who can beat us. So it’s going to be a lot of close games, like it always is, and we’ve got to get better.”