Men's Soccer Downs Princeton to Remain Undefeated in Ivy Play

There appeared to be a small-scale Harvard invasion of Princeton this past weekend, with four teams traveling to New Jersey to face off against their Ivy League rivals. The men’s soccer team, (8-3-2, 3-0-1 Ivy League) came from behind against Princeton (6-7-1, 0-3-1) on Saturday to bring home another win, and extend its win streak to seven game.

“We’ve had our struggles with Princeton over the last few years, and going into their place we knew it was going to take a full team effort and a full 90 minutes just grinding and battling through the game, and playing with all that passion and momentum we’ve had over the last few weeks” senior forward Jake Freeman said. “To do that and to come out with a result after being down 2-1 and going through a little bit of adversity in the first half, we’re really proud of the group.”

All of the action came in the first half, with all five goals being scored then. Princeton was set on defending its home turf, and made sure that Harvard knew that if it was to leave Roberts Stadium with a win, it would have to play just as physically as them. The Crimson responded quickly, pushing its way forward into the Tigers’ attacking third early on.

The offensive effort was due in part to freshman forward Taner Dogan, who once again set the tempo for the Crimson attack, scoring five minutes into the game. Just over four minutes into play time, the team found itself in the attacking third with an opportunity to score. Junior defender Justin Crichlow found Dogan on a long throw in, and Dogan hit it first time past Princeton goalkeeper Josh Haberman to score the first goal of the game, and his second in his Harvard career. Much like his first goal against BC, getting the early lead boosted the team’s confidence.

Princeton was not to be counted out though; and as hungry as Harvard was to get another goal, the Tigers were just as motivated to get the equalizer. Six minutes later, Princeton defender James Reiner connected with teammate Patrick Barba on a throw in; Barba headed the ball, which went to one of Princeton’s leading goal scorers, Greg Seifert. Seifert, off Barba’s header, headed the ball past Crimson junior goalkeeper Kyle Parks to scored the equalizer.

Harvard responded with several attempts on goal, but was unable to find a way past the Princeton defense.

After the Crimson’s last attempt off of junior midfielder Sam Brown’s corner kick, Princeton began a counterattack, and struck again 15 minutes after its first goal. Reiner and Barba teamed up again, with Reiner laying off midfielder Vikram Pothuri’s shot to Barba, who then put the ball away.

After two unanswered goals, it was time for Harvard to stage a comeback.

“Our reaction to going down was really great-- we came back and scored two more goals in that half so that was awesome,” senior defender Daniel Smith said.

Led by Brown and Dogan, the offense found multiple opportunities for shots, but none were able to get past Princeton’s Haberman. That is, until Freeman, the Crimson’s highest scorer, juked a Princeton defender at the top of the box and sent a low ball into the corner of the net.

The last goal of the half-- and the game -- came just before halftime, when junior defender Eric Gylling found a window and ripped a shot from 25 yards out, splitting the defense and past Princeton’s goalkeeper. With this goal, Harvard went up 3-2.

“We did a really good job of staying mentally focused and keeping doing what we were doing and we were able to fight back and get the 3-2 lead going into the half,” junior forward Tyler Savitsky said. “And then the second half was just a...performance. We were really compact and really hard to get through and we managed to hang on to [the lead]”.

For the rest of the half, and during the second half, Harvard fought hard to to shut Princeton out to hold on to its 3-2 lead. This is the first time the team has won against Princeton in three years.

“I think we’re really excited because this was another one where we were down early and fought back,” Smith said. “Everyone contributed from the younger guys on the team to the older guys. Everyone pitched in so it was a good team effort, and a good response from when we were in a bad situation.”

–Staff writer Katherine Scott can be reached at katherine.scott@thecrimson.com.