Men's soccer downs Penn

Clutch play continued this weekend for the men’s soccer team, as the Tigers (10-3-3 overall, 4-1-1 Ivy League) took down Penn (6-8-2, 2-2-2) by a 3-2 margin at home on Saturday evening. The result led the Tigers to keep pace with Dartmouth in the Ivy standings, as the Big Green defeated Cornell 3-0 to also maintain a 4-1-1 conference record. Saturday’s win extended the Tigers’ unbeaten streak to eight games.

Senior forward Cameron Porter put Princeton on the board early in the match with a shot which the right inside edge of the goal in the seventh minute. Junior midfielder Brendan McSherry extended the Tigers’ lead in the 16th minute, as Penn keeper Max Polkinhorne could not corral the Tiger's close-range shot toward the left post. Penn would come back 15 minutes later with forward Alex Neumann finishing on a loose ball inside the box to cut Penn’s deficit in half.

Action right before the half ultimately decided the match differential, as junior forward Nico Hurtado found the back of the net to put the Tigers up 3-1. However, the Quakers responded just 18 seconds later with Neumann once again scoring for his eighth goal of the season. The score at the half read 3-2, and remained that way for the entirety of the second half to seal the Tigers’ fourth consecutive win as well as their third straight in Ivy play. The Senior Night victory was also particularly sweet for the Tigers, as they had revenge on a Quaker squad that knocked them out of the running for the Ivy title just one year ago.

“It was another great team victory,” Hurtado said. “We faced a lot of adversity in warm-ups after finding out that [senior back Andrew] Mills and [senior back] Joe [Saitta], both seniors, wouldn’t be able to play because of injury. Our attack was playing really well in the first half and got the goals, but we weren’t good at keeping the same intensity short after scoring, as we gave up our two goals really quickly after one of our goals. The second half was played more in the midfield and battling, and we were able to be a really solid defensive unit and get the shutout for the second half.”

The Tigers now have one game left to determine the ultimate outcome of the Ivy League Championship. But despite the Tigers’ brilliant performance as of late, their fate is not entirely in their own hands. Should the Tigers beat Yale on the road on Saturday, they would need Dartmouth to either draw or lose against Brown in order to clinch the Ivy League Championship. If Dartmouth wins, they automatically win the conference, as well as the automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.

But with the surge the Tigers have had in the second half of the season, which included an incredibly strong win against American University last week, they realize that an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament is still a possibility for them. This possibility makes a win against Yale a necessity, regardless of Dartmouth’s performance against Brown.

“Now we have to win at Yale in order to keep our season alive,” Hurtado said. “We know it isn’t gonna be easy, because all Ivy League games on the road are tough and it’s the last game for Yale’s coach before he retires, so I’m sure they’ll be pumped for that. We have everything to play for at Yale, as we’ll have a chance to be Ivy League champions, which was one of our goals set at the beginning of the year, as well as making the NCAA Tournament.”

The Tigers square off against Yale (1-12-3, 0-5-1 Ivy) in New Haven on Saturday afternoon. The kickoff whistle is set to blow at 3 p.m.