BEDEVILED: Princeton University men’s soccer player Jack Jasinski boots the ball in recent action. Last Sunday, senior midfielder Jasinski contributed an assist in a losing cause as third-seeded Princeton fell 2-1 to Duke in the second round of the NCAA tournament at Roberts Stadium. The Tigers led 1-0 midway through the second half before the Blue Devils scored two goals into final 20 minutes of regulation to pull out the win. The Tigers ended the fall with a 15-2-2 record as they won the Ivy League regular season title with a 7-0 league record and the Ivy tournament and set a program record for the most wins in a season. (Photo by Frank Jacobs III)
By Bill Alden
Leading the Princeton University men’s soccer team onto the pitch to face visiting Duke in an NCAA second-round contest last Sunday, Tiger senior captain Jack Hunt shouted at his teammates to “beat your man and make him hate playing you.”
Fueled by a raucous throng of 2,303 packing Roberts Stadium, the fired-up Princeton players repeatedly beat their Duke foes to the ball, building a 5-2 edge in corner kicks and 13-6 in shots in the first half.
Hunt cashed in one of those corner kicks for third-seeded Princeton, heading in a feed from Jack Jasinski for his first career goal at the 32:40 mark.
Princeton head coach Jim Barlow wasn’t surprised to see Hunt step up in
the clutch.
“Jack is just a warrior; other guys had chances and didn’t put them away,” said Barlow. “We knew we were getting dangerous on our corner kicks and he got to the back post and figured out a way to finish.”
Duke head coach John Kerr acknowledged that Princeton had his team on its heels throughout the
first half.
“The bombardment we had to put up with in the first half was amazing,” said Kerr. “They were on the front foot. They put us under severe pressure. We got lucky a couple of times, we hung in there.”
In the second half, though, Duke put the pressure on the Tigers as they built a 9-3 edge in shots. The Blue Devils broke through with a
goal by Kenan Hot at the 70:25 mark to knot the game at 1-1.
Just 15 seconds later, Princeton star forward Danny Ittycheria picked up his second yellow card of the game after a collision with the Duke goalie to get ejected from the game. Going a man-up, the Blue Devils took advantage, getting a goal from Leonardo D’Ambrosio with 4:15 left in regulation to pull out
the win.
The Tigers ended the fall with a 15-2-2 record as they won the Ivy League regular season title with a 7-0 league record and the Ivy tournament and set a program record for the most wins in a season.
Hating to see their historic season end in such disappointing fashion, some Princeton players lay prone on the pitch for minutes after the final whistle while others sat on the field staring ahead blankly.
The sequence where Duke scored the tying goal and Ittycheria got sent off haunted Barlow.
“It was a tough couple of minutes, we conceded a goal and then got the red carded right after that,” said Barlow, whose team didn’t concede a goal in Ivy regular season action, the first time that has happened in league history. “It definitely changed the game. It was going to be difficult trying to get to overtime where we could get some fresh legs on and regroup a little bit but we didn’t get it done.”
Despite being down a man, Princeton did press forward in the waning moments of the contest.
“Our guys always battle, that part of it is always there,” said Barlow. “It is never a question that they are going to fight and battle and they did that again
today.”
The Blue Devils showed a fighting spirit as well. “I will also say Duke weathered our storm and got it going a bit in the second half,” said Barlow. “I give them a lot of credit. A lot of other teams would have folded in this environment, down a goal. They are a good team, they have a lot of good players.”
Duke midfielder Hot, a native of Lincroft, was confident that the Blue Devils could come through despite the Tiger onslaught.
“We knew we were going to get one if we kept pushing,” said Hot. “A goal changes the game. Hats off to Princeton, that is the
best Princeton team I have ever seen.”
With all that the Tigers accomplished this fall, Barlow and his players didn’t see their season ending so early in the NCAA tournament.
“If you had told this group of guys that they would win the league and the Ivy League tournament and have more wins than any other Princeton team and would be eliminated in this round, none of them would have signed up for that,” said Barlow. “They all had bigger expectations, that part hurts.”
The squad’s core of seniors played a key part in Princeton’s success this fall.
“It is an incredible group, not just the guys who played but guys who don’t play push the group every day,” said Barlow. “They come to training everyday ready to go. They have the right mentality. They care about the right things. All 11 of them are really important pieces to this team.”
But with the parity in college men’s soccer, Barlow knew that doing so many good things through the fall didn’t guarantee a big postseason run.
“It is the nature of college soccer,” said Barlow. “Anything can happen in a game.”