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Princeton University Athletics
Princeton University
Brown
Players Mentioned
Saitta's First Career Goal Leads Princeton to 2-1 Win Over Brown
October 11, 2014 | Men's Soccer
Box Score
PRINCETON, N.J. (10/11/14) - Senior defender Joe Saitta scored his first career goal in the 84th minute, the game-winning goal, as Princeton defeated Brown 2-1 on Saturday, Oct. 11 on Myslik Field at Roberts Stadium.
The Tigers ended Brown's 504-minute shutout streak, doing something no opponent has been able to do in four games.Princeton trailed 1-0 before a Cameron Porter penalty kick in the 69th minute, evened the scoring.
Brown took the early lead in the 12th minute with a goal off a throw in. The throw was delivered inside the 18-yard box, just to the left of the goal where Ben Maurey got a foot on it and pushed it back to Daniel Taylor near the tip of the goal box. Taylor centered to Jack Gorab and he blasted in a shot that defender Josh Miller tried to block but instead hit the back of the net.
"I thought we didn't have our best first half, but we still felt at halftime that we had the ability to win the game," Princeton head coach Jim Barlow said. "I didn't think our passing was great in the first half, there were too many plays that went backwards or stalled and allowed them to get a lot of numbers behind the ball. They weren't taking any chances and were keeping guys back and we had a hard time breaking them down. In the second half, I thought we did better at getting the ball moving and getting more dangerous plays moving forward. Certainly the penalty helped break the ice and I think we were pretty good after that."
It was a battle in much of the midfield with just two shots on goal in the first half, but coming from Bears. Junior Ben Hummel made his first save of the game in the 26th minute on a shot by Eduardo Martin.
The Princeton penalty kick provided the Tigers momentum and it led to Saitta's tally at 83:46.
Junior Nico Hurtado started the play in the midfield and found sophomore Vikram Pothuri, who started the second half, just inside the box. Pothuri sent a cross to Saitta on the left side and he finished with goal into the far corner.
Hummel finished the game with four saves, while Mitch Kupstas allowed two goals on two shots.
"I think this gets us back in the race," Barlow said. "If you lose the first two, and both at home, it's really very difficult to have a chance to win the league. With how much parity there is in our league I think we're right back into the thick of the race now. We still need to take care of business outside the league and see if we can keep climbing up the RPI. But it was a really important win to get back in the race."
The Tigers improve to 5-3-2 overall and 1-1 in the Ivy League.
Princeton caps it's six-game homestand hosting Loyola on Tuesday, Oct. 14 at 7 p.m.