On a warm Tuesday night at Myslik Field in Roberts Stadium, the Princeton women’s soccer team (6–3 overall, 1–0 Ivy League) defeated the visiting Lafayette Leopards (4–4–1 overall, 1–1–1 Patriot League) by a score of 3–0. This marks their second 3–0 shutout win in a row following the Tigers’ victory over Cornell on the road last Saturday.
“We just wanted to prove what we’ve been working on so far,” sophomore forward Isabella Garces told The Daily Princetonian. “We found our voice as a team, and we found out who we are, and that’s what we did.”
The Tigers held a dominant attack throughout the game, putting continuous pressure on the Leopards’ defense and goaltender. Princeton took a staggering 25 shots, over half of which were on frame, compared to Lafayette’s five shots with only two on target.
With Princeton controlling offensive play from kickoff, it didn’t take them long to get a scoring chance on the Lafayette net. Building off of a corner kick from junior forward Pietra Tordin and an assist by senior midfielder Kate Toomey, the Tigers took an early lead with a goal in the 16th minute. Sophomore defender Zoe Markesini grounded the ball and drilled a pass to first-year midfielder Brooke Dawahare who slid her shot past the Lafayette goalkeeper, marking a score of 1–0.
The offense kept this momentum up for the remainder of the first half, punishing the Leopards’ defense and earning chances. Tordin — who competed for the USA’s U-20 women’s national team in the FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup — showed more great flashes throughout her time on the field, performing amazing build-up and putting pressure on the Leopard defense with an on target free kick attempt.
To the ‘Prince,’ Tordin noted Princeton’s “relentless” attack which was driven by constant forward ball movement.
After closing out the first 45 minutes of play up by one, the Orange and Black followed up with an equally impressive second half.
After a Leopard handball in the box, the referee awarded a penalty kick (PK) to the Tigers in the 51st minute. Garces stepped up to take the kick. She strode forward and then smoothly slotted the ball past the keeper into the bottom left side of the net, putting Princeton up 2–0.
“You know, that was my first PK in a game since I tore my ACL two years ago,” Garces noted. “So I took a moment to be a little bit nervous, and then I just smiled [and] I just trusted myself and went for it.” This marks Garces’ third goal of the season.
The Tigers continued an aggressive attack, with several other opportunities on goal throughout the rest of the second half. In the 56th minute, first-year forward Dylan Jovanovic got the ball above the top of the box, dribbled through her defender, and then took a curling shot towards the top left corner, forcing a brilliant save by the opposing keeper Maddie Miniutti to keep her off the score sheet.
Despite holding a 2–0 lead over their opponents, the Tigers did not relent, continuing to play balls forward and into the final third.
Their efforts paid off in the last two minutes of the game. Tordin received the ball at the top of the box. After a miss hit on her right foot, she immediately followed up with a blistering left-footed strike. Miniutti dove for the shot, punching the ball away from the goal — and directly into the path of first-year forward Alexandra Barry, who blasted the ball into the middle right corner of the net for the Tigers’ third goal of the night.
The Tigers closed out the night with a three-goal win and defensive shutout. They will look to build on this momentum this Saturday when they face Brown (4–2–3 overall, 1–0–0 Ivy League) at home.
“I’d just like us to continue with that same mindset for every game we have, which is to not give away any goals to the best of our ability, and keep creating a lot of chances in the attacking third,” Head Coach Sean Driscoll told the ‘Prince.’ “[Brown has] had our number the last few years and so we’d like to make sure we play really well against them.”
Leila Eshaghpour-Silberman is a Sports contributor & Features contributing writer for the ‘Prince.’
Amrit Vignesh is a Sports contributor for the ‘Prince.’
Please direct any corrections requests to corrections[at]dailyprincetonian.com.
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