Penn men's soccer eliminated from Ivy contention with loss to Princeton

It appears a repeat is not in order.

Penn men’s soccer fell Saturday night to Princeton, 3-2, extending the Quakers’ winless streak to four games. The Quakers, the 2013 Ivy League champions, were eliminated from contention for the Ancient Eight title with the loss.

Princeton (10-3-3, 4-1-1 Ivy) jumped out to an early lead over the Quakers (6-8-2, 2-2-2). Cameron Porter notched his 14th goal of the season in the seventh minute, assisted by Brendan McSherry and Myles McGinley. In the 16th minute, the roles reversed, as Porter assisted McSherry for the latter’s third goal of the season as the Tigers expanded their lead to 2-0.

The Quakers fought back and cut the lead to 2-1 in the 31st minute when sophomore forward Alec Neumann took advantage of Duke Lacroix’s shot being ricocheted off Princeton goalkeeper Ben Hummel for his seventh goal of the season.

Later in the first half, Princeton’s Nico Hurtado logged his second goal of the year in the 42nd minute, but Neumann and the Quakers came right back. Assisted by senior midfielder Louis Schott, Neumann scored his second goal of the night just 18 seconds later to make the score 3-2 in favor of Princeton at the half.

“I thought it was certainly a resilient performance,” coach Rudy Fuller said. “To give up those goals early, it was a good response … It was certainly an enjoyable game for the spectators to watch.”

Both teams made halftime adjustments, and the second half was dramatically different than the first.

“It ended up a stalemate in the second half, and we weren’t able to find the third goal,” Fuller said.

After five goals in the first half, there were five yellow cards in the second, and all were squeezed into a span just longer than seven minutes. Freshman back Sam Wancowicz was issued his in the 51st minute for stepping into a tackle, and Neumann and Princeton’s Josh Miller were both given yellows after a collision in the 55th minute. Junior midfielder Forrest Clancy and McGinley were each tagged with yellows for separate violations in the 58th minute.

“I think the referees did a good job keeping the game under control,” Fuller said. “I never felt like the game got out of control. It was just a competitive Ivy League match. There were some tackles that deserved yellows, but the referees were on top of it.”

In the end, Penn was unable to find an equalizer and fell to the Tigers. The Quakers are now in a tie for fourth place and will not make a return trip to the NCAA Tournament.

The Red and Blue  will end their season at home against Harvard next Saturday, in what will be Senior Night for the Quakers, as they send off their five graduating seniors. Despite the Quakers’ elimination, Fuller said they  will continue to use the same approach they have all season.

“We’re going to try to send our seniors off on a high note. They don’t deserve anything less.”

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