PRINCETON — This was supposed to be the year the Princeton University men’s soccer team ended a drought so long it was hard to believe.
The Tigers were having an historic season, one in which they completed the Ivy League double all while posting the best defensive statistics of any team in college soccer, and a victory on Sunday evening would be their first in the NCAA Tournament in 32 years.
Instead, Jim Barlow and his players were left with more heartache.
Duke’s Kenan Hot and Leonardo D’Ambrosio scored goals in the final 20 minutes, Princeton star Daniel Ittycheria was sent off for a second yellow card in between and the Blue Devils came back from a halftime deficit to beat the Tigers, 2-1, and silence a raucous crowd at Myslik Field at Roberts Stadium in a second-round match.
“I feel like if you would have told this group of guys that they win the league, win the Ivy League Tournament and have more wins than any other Princeton team, but been eliminated in this round none of them would have signed off on that,” Barlow said. “They had bigger expectations. That part hurts.”
Princeton was trying to win an NCAA Tournament game for the first time since Bob Bradley guided it all the way to the national semifinal in 1993.
Barlow, in his 29th season in charge of his alma mater, has taken the program to the NCAA Tournament seven times and each and every time has come up short. Six of those eliminations are by one goal and the other was a penalty kick shootout that went 14 rounds.
But this one, in many ways, was the most brutal.
Princeton earned the No. 3 overall seed thanks to its incredible regular season in which it went 7-0 in the Ivy League without conceding a goal and then became the first team in the Ivy’s short tournament history to do the double.
As the No. 3 seed, the Tigers received a first-round bye — they were actually in the second round for the first time since that 1993 season — and came out buzzing against their ACC opposition. Only three early saves by Blue Devils goalkeeper Eryk Dymora and a post after a terrific run and shot by Ittycheria denied Princeton the lead.
That pressure eventually paid off when captain Jack Hunt headed in his first career goal in the 33rd minute and brought a crowd of 2,303 to a roar.
Just as the two Ivy League Tournament games played out, Princeton was content to sit back in the second half and soak up pressure while looking to hit on the counter. Barlow left Ittycheria, who had been cautioned in the first half, and Bardia Hormozi on the bench to begin the second 45 minutes with the hope of bringing them in to run at a tiring Blue Devils side later in the half.
But with Princeton unable to get out of its own half and with only the spectacular Andrew Samuels to thank for keeping the lead in tact after he made a phenomenal save to keep out Drew Kerr’s free kick, Ittycheria and Hormozi were inserted back in the game.
Duke, however, got the breakthrough in the 70th minute after a nice combination play between Kamran Acito, Ulfur Bjornsson and Hot. The Middletown South product found himself one-on-one against Samuels and cooly slotted the ball past the goalkeeper.
Fourteen seconds later, Princeton was reduced to 10 men after Ittycheria was sent off for a second yellow card when he was late into challenge with Dymora and clipped the goalkeeper on the head with his right boot.
The Tigers committed 26 fouls to Duke’s 12. Princeton averages 13.7 fouls per game, which ranks 191st out of 210 team nationally.
“Danny is really upset, but we would never be here without Danny,” Barlow said. “He had a really good first half, he was dangerous, he hit the crossbar and had a bunch of plays that made us dangerous. For him to try and figure out a way to get a goal and it results in another yellow card.”
Up a man, the Blue Devils really put their foot on the gas, especially knowing the Tigers would love to get to penalties with Samuels in goal.
“If we get it done now, but if we have to do it in overtime, they are a man down so it’s going to kill them a lot more than it’s going to kill us that last 20,” Hot said. “There wasn’t pressure, necessarily, but it was let’s apply pressure and it will come.”
The winning goal came in the 86th minute when D’Ambrosio finished neatly past Samuels after the ball had deflected to him in the box.
“It was a tough couple minutes there,” Barlow said. “We conceded a goal and then got the red card right after that. It definitely changed the game. It was going to be difficult and we were trying to get to overtime where we could get some fresh legs on and regroup a little bit. Didn’t get it done.”
Winning hasn’t been easy for seeded teams in the second round of the tournament. The top three seeds all went out on Sunday — No. 1 Vermont coughed up a two-goal lead and lost to Hofstra, 3-2, in overtime and No. 2 Virginia was eliminated on penalty kicks by UNC Greensboro after a 2-all draw.
Additionally, No. 5 SMU and No. 6 Indiana also lost, while No. 4 Maryland needed penalty kicks to advance.
“It’s the nature of college soccer,” Barlow said. “Anything can happen in a game.”
“The parity is unbelievable,” echoed Duke coach John Kerr. “Anybody can beat anybody on any given day. … Nothing is taken for granted and maybe that helped us a little bit today.”
It didn’t help Princeton.
An historic season ending on a sour note.
“Today,” Barlow said, “it does.”
