Tigers Rally to Tie Dartmouth in Ivy Opener

Saturday, October 1

Princeton, NJ

4:00 PM

Princeton University

4-3-1

Dartmouth

1-2-5

OT 3

OT 4

Dartmouth

Princeton

Photo by: Princeton Athletic Communications

October 01, 2016 | Men's Soccer

Box Score

The Princeton men's soccer team found itself not only down a goal but down a player in the Ivy League opener with Dartmouth just 35 minutes into the game but the Tigers rallied and never stop fighting to force a 2-2 tie.

Noah Paravicini gave the Big Green the lead in the eighth minute when he headed in a Justin Donawa cross to the upper left 90.

Sophomore Jeremy Colvin fought to tie things up with a great chance in the 18th when he stripped the Big Green at their own 30 and turned to take the shot but the ball skirted just wide of the right post. He took another strike seven minutes later that had to be swatted down by keeper James Hickok near the crossbar. Senior Greg Seifert gave it a try in the 27th when he blasted a hard restart that Hickock bobbled and the ball was loose but the Tigers couldn't put it away.

Junior Daniel Bowkett was carded in the 35th minute and 52 seconds later was given another caution and was sent off the field, forcing Princeton to play down a man for the reminder of the game.

"I think we need to do better with not getting in that situation in the first place," senior captain Patrick Barba said referring to being down both a goal and player. "We came out of halftime down a goal, we give up another goal, we down two goal and playing down a man - playing 10 against 11 and dominate them in the second half and we end up tying them. I think that shows a ton of heart. I think that's really promising going forward but I think we need to play with that intensity before we go down. I think if we can do that we play any team off the field and if we bring that intensity we're in great shape."

The Tigers didn't relent. Barba redirected a Henry Martin shot on a restart but couldn't get it on target though a long ball by Colvin in the 45th again had to be brushed away by Hickock.

The uphill battle loomed as Dartmouth's Tyler Dowse net an unassisted goal in the 53rd as he dribbled past his defender and broke a shot through two others to give the Big Green a 2-0 lead.

However, Princeton wouldn't go away and continued the counter attack.

Sophomore Sean McSherry notched his first career goal in the 55th minute to inch Princeton that much closer. Junior Matthew Mangini took a restart in front of the Princeton bench and launched it into the box where it bounced off of senior Vikram Pothrui and Barba before it found McSherry. McSherry tried once and it was blocked right back to his foot where he found the more room on his second attempt and the twine.

Six minutes later it was a tie game with senior Brian Costa netting the equalizer on a header, his first career goal. Mangini again was a factor in the goal as he fed McSherry down the right flank and McSherry crossed the ball across to the left side to Costa who dove and punched it in.

Senior Josh Haberman made a career-high nine saves in goal for the the Tigers. One of his better saves came in the 70th minute, a diving stop on a shot by Matt Greer on a Dartmouth corner kick.

Jonathan Nierenberg nearly kept the fans from seeing 20 minutes of extra soccer when he hit the left post with two seconds left in regulation.

Princeton's best chance in overtime was a cross by McSherry after he made a move around his defender and found Colvin but the shot just cleared the cross bar in the 95th.

Dartmouth had a 24-16 edge in shots. Hickock made five shots on seven shots on goal for Dartmouth who move to 1-2-5 on the season.

Princeton faces Seton Hall on Wednesday, Oct. 5 at 7 p.m., in South Orange, N.J.