In a thrilling Ivy League Tournament semifinal clash, the men’s soccer team (11–6 overall, 5–2 Ivy League) pulled off a turnaround, taking down the No. 16 Cornell Big Red (12–3–2, 5–2) 3–2 in overtime. Princeton, the No. 3 seed, conceded two goals early on against the No. 2 seed Cornell, but a dominant second-half performance and a dramatic extra-time winner propelled them to victory.
Both teams came into the match with the same conference records. The only thing separating the Tigers from the Big Red was a narrow 1–0 loss earlier this season.
“We thought we were too conservative in terms of committing numbers forward and trying to keep them pinned for their end,” Head Coach Jim Barlow ’91 wrote to The Daily Princetonian, referring to the previous Cornell game. “We thought in order to score we needed to get more players forward and go for it.”
For the Tigers, the night started off on the wrong foot. At the fifteen-minute mark, the Princeton defensive line was caught off their marks when Cornell’s Liam May slid an easy through ball for the Big Red’s top scorer this season, Alex Harris. The second leading scorer in the nation poked the ball past sophomore goalkeeper Andrew Samuels to give Cornell a 1–0 lead.
Princeton’s defensive woes doubled just two minutes later. Cornell stole the ball from the left side and quickly pushed it to the right for May, who swung a high cross into the middle of the box. Cornell’s Danny Lokko found himself completely open as he headered it home for 2–0.
“We were all frustrated as we lost our way a bit for that 10-minute stretch,” Barlow wrote. “But you could tell the belief never left. The guys did not want the season to end.”
The Tigers pushed forward, inducing a corner for junior defender Jack Jasinski to lob into the middle of the Cornell box five minutes later. Junior winger Daniel Ittycheria, the Tigers top scorer this season, soared over the crowd of defenders to hammer the ball into the back of the net, putting the Tigers back in the game at a 2–1 deficit.
DANNY ITTYCHERIA and the Tigers are on the board! 💥#PrincetonSoccer #WhosNext pic.twitter.com/AtmHeysMOO
— Princeton Men’s Soccer (@PrincetonMSoc) November 16, 2024
“Getting the goal on the corner kick shortly after going down by two helped a lot,” Barlow explained. “After being shut out against Penn, that goal lifted our spirits and gave us some confidence that we could score on them.”
Cornell came close to extending their lead in the 34th minute, when Harris beat his defender and drove all the way into the middle of the box, but junior defender Jack Hunt’s stretched leg deflected his shot to keep it a one-goal game into the half.
“[Sending more players forward] meant that in transition, our back line would be in a bunch of one-on-one situations against some great attacking players,” Barlow wrote. “The guys in the back handled those challenges really well.”
Princeton gained momentum through the second half until the 83rd minute, when Jasinski played a through ball into the box over the Cornell defense. Senior forward Nico Nee timed his run perfectly to find himself free, as he volleyed the ball over Cornell goalkeeper Ryan Friedberg to level the game 2–2.
NICO NEE STRIKES AND WE ARE TIED HERE AT RHODES WITH 7 TO GO!!!
— Princeton Men’s Soccer (@PrincetonMSoc) November 16, 2024
COME ON TIGERS!!#PrincetonSoccer #WhosNext pic.twitter.com/FAITNroj0x
The Tigers were relentless in the final minutes of regulation time. Sophomore forward Ian Nuñez headed it high, first-year midfielder Kristian Kelley had his powerful shot blocked by Cornell defenders, and Ittycheria’s rebounded volley went just over the crossbar. Nuñez followed up with a cut and low shot inside the box, Ittycheria with a header into Friedberg’s hands, and, in the 89th minute, first-year defender Roka Tsunehara found himself wide open in the box, but could not connect with the ball in time.
With ten seconds left, Tsunehara blasted the ball forward over the Cornell defense, and Nee found himself free once more. This time, however, Friedberg stuck out his entire body to deflect the shot, with the defenders somehow scrambling a clearance.
“The mentality was incredible. After a slow start, you could clearly see that we never gave up,” Tsunehara wrote to the ‘Prince.’
In the 104th minute, Nuñez drove into the box on the right side before cutting it back to Tsunehara, who chipped it into the middle. Ittycheria snuck in between the defenders to bury the game-winning goal, running and taking his shirt off to celebrate with the stands.
ITTYCHERIA ENDS IT.
— Ivy League (@IvyLeague) November 16, 2024
No. 3 @PrincetonMSoc is moving on after Danny Ittycheria's header in the second period of extra time sends the Tigers to the championship game! 🌿⚽️ pic.twitter.com/tjdkTcxxKn
“I had a blast playing, and I knew that we would get the win,” Ittycheria wrote to the ‘Prince.’ “We still have one more to go, and we are not satisfied at all.”
The Tigers move onto the championship final on Sunday at 1 p.m. against the No. 1 seed, nationally-ranked No. 12 Penn Quakers (14–2–1, 7–0), a rematch of the last-minute 1–0 loss just one week ago.
“Last week was a very close game with Penn, and we expect another one [on Sunday],” Barlow wrote. “We are all excited to get another shot at Penn.”
Bryant Figueroa is a staff Sports writer for the ‘Prince.’
Please send any corrections to corrections[at]dailyprincetonian.com.
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