For the Penn men's soccer team this weekend at Princeton, it's do and/or die.
The Quakers (8-4-2, 4-1-1 Ivy) head into their final game of the regular season in need of a win and a Harvard loss or draw in order to win the Ivy League for the first time since 2002, when they shared the title with Dartmouth.
But recent history has not been on the Quakers' side. Just last season, Princeton (6-7-3, 1-4-1) came away with a 2-1 victory after scoring two goals in the last 10 minutes of the game. Furthermore, Penn has not earned a win over the Tigers since 1985, and its drought on the road extends all the way back to 1975.
"There are some crazy matchups in this league that are just unexplainable," Penn coach Rudy Fuller said.
Nonetheless, Princeton's struggles this season might allow the Quakers to snap their winless streak.
A young and relatively inexperienced team, second-to-last place Princeton has needed to rely heavily on freshmen this season for offensive production.
Devin Muntz leads his class and the entire team in points with four goals and three assists. Fellow freshman Max Hare has also surged as of late, earning a starting role midway through the season and netting two goals of his own.
Senior goalie Justin Oppenheimer anchors the defense, which has given up 22 goals this season, in contrast to the 12 goals that Penn has surrendered.
Despite some success against non-conference opponents, Princeton has faltered against Ivy teams, suffering from a slew of bad breaks and an inability to finish games. In fact, the Tigers have lost all but one of their league games by only one goal, including a heartbreaking overtime defeat to Brown.
Princeton coach Jim Barlow has no problem with seeing his team play the role of a spoiler.
"Now that we've been eliminated from the Ivy title race, we're going to find out a lot about our guys' character," he said. "We're not afraid of anyone."
According to Fuller, Penn will need to play well on defense to counter Princeton's often dangerous attacks.
"They're a very good soccer team," he said. "We're going to have to be very sharp defensively."
And with the leadership of senior goalie Dan Cepero and strong play from classmate Andy Howard and junior Keith Vereb, the Quakers have shined defensively.
"I feel more confident in this team than I've felt in any other team since I've been here," Cepero said. "The defense has been tremendous."
To beat Princeton, Penn will need to create more scoring chances. The team hasn't scored more than one goal in a game since its 3-1 victory over Harvard Sept. 23.
However, forward Ryan Tracy claimed that the lack of goals is more a product of being unlucky than anything else.
"I thought we had a lot of good chances against Brown," he said of the scoreless draw last Saturday. "We could have had three goals against them."
Despite the implications of Harvard's game against Columbia in Boston - which will run concurrently to the Quakers' game - Fuller is only concerned with what Penn can control.
"We need to beat Princeton, regardless of what's going on at Harvard," he said.
With an opportunity to win the league and make the NCAA Tournament, one thing is for sure: Penn will show up ready to play.
"We're going to be really fired up," Tracy said.
