Men's Soccer Shut Out at Princeton

The Lions may not be in panic mode just yet, but after losing to Princeton 2-0 in New Jersey last Saturday, they are certainly on high alert.

The Columbia men’s soccer team has not won an Ivy League game since Nov. 12, 2005, and many among the team’s ranks might have believed that this was the match to get that monkey off their backs.

After a heartbreaking 3-2 loss to Penn last weekend, in which an apparent equalizer by senior Tom Davison in the 82nd minute was invalidated by a questionable offside call, the Lions headed to New Jersey looking to steal points from a Princeton team that, much like Columbia, has been plagued by inconsistency and is looking to rebound from a disappointing 2006 campaign.

“Going into the game, I didn’t even think about losing, to be honest,” senior captain Tom Heinbockel confessed. “I thought it was going to be a big three points for us to get us right back in the mixer.”

But such things often do not go as planned, and after two disappointing weekends of conference play, the Lions now uncomfortably rest in last place in the Ivy League and are the only team without a single point.

Other results around the league this weekend have helped Columbia’s cause, as Harvard and Penn lost to Brown and Dartmouth respectively, leaving Brown alone at the top of the table with six points. And the Lions, for now, remain stubborn about their chances for the title.

“Usually, I would say that 0-2 is a big hole to climb out of, but this year, I’m not so sure,” Heinbockel said. “If we win out and go 5-2, it’s possible—anything’s possible."

History, though, weighs heavily against the team. In the past decade, the Ivy League champion has finished with an average of 17.2 points. In fact, the last time that a team has won the title with less than 16 points was in 1980, when Columbia tied Penn for first place with 14 points.

“We just need to keep looking forward and win our next couple of games,” Heinbockel explained. “We can get back into it.”

Saturday’s match, then, is one that the Lions will likely try to leave behind.

The Lions best chance to score came just four minutes into the match, when forward Bayo Adafin slipped past the Tiger defense to meet a well played through-ball from the back. The freshman's shot, however—like the rest of the team’s subsequent chances—missed its intended mark.

“The first half, I thought we dominated. But we just couldn’t put the ball in the net,” Heinbockel explained.

With 50 seconds remaining in the first half, then, Princeton struck a disheartening blow, as a breakdown in the Lion’s transition defense allowed the Tigers' Kyle McHugh to find space on the counterattack and score the game’s first goal.

The Lion’s opened up their formation in the second half, moving senior Tom Davison—who once again started the game as a holding midfielder—to the front, while removing a defender from their original back four to add another attacking player in midfield.

The adjustments, however, proved fruitless. And in the 87th minute, McHugh struck again, as he took advantage of Columbia’s attacking shape to score on a 2-on-1 breakaway.

After the game, Heinbockel maintained that the Lions put on the better performance in the match.

“We had the chances early, and just didn’t put them away. I’m still kind of shocked that we lost,” the senior said. “It didn’t really seem like a 2-0 game.”

That, perhaps, may be an honest perception; reality—two straight conference losses—is a bit harsher.