HEAD GAMES: Princeton University men’s soccer players, Andrew Mills. left, and Thomas Sanner use their heads during Princeton’s scoreless draw with St. John’s last Wednesday. The Tigers, who edged Seton Hall 5-4 last Sunday to improve to 1-1-1, host Georgetown on September 17 in a game to be televised on ESPNU before playing at Boston University on September 20. (Photo by Frank Wojciechowski)

Andrew Mills is shouldering additional leadership responsibility for the Princeton University men’s soccer team, by necessity.

With fellow senior and All-Ivy League defender Josh Miller having been sidelined by injury, Mills, a midfielder at times during his college career, is spearheading the Princeton backline.

“I played center back in all of my youth so it is nothing new,” said Mills. “I played a little center mid last year so that was kind of a switch up. I am pretty comfortable back there.”

Last Wednesday evening, Mills showed his comfort level in the central defender role, helping Princeton battle St. John’s to a scoreless tie through two overtimes as the Tigers tightened things up after a 3-2 opening day loss to Fairleigh Dickinson University on September 5.

“On Friday, we gave up three soft goals off of set plays and today we
really limited their chances on restarts,” said the 6’2, 195-pound Mills, a native of Sacramento, Calif.

“We gave up a couple of corners that could have been avoidable but we seemed to deal with them pretty well. There were only a couple that I felt they were really getting dangerous. Beyond that, we were just tighter with our line. We were making sure that we were more organized, keeping our communication high.”

There is good communication between Mills and his eight classmates on the squad.

“We are a really tight knit group, just among ourselves as a friend group,” said Mills, a team tri-captain along with classmates Miller and Myles McGinley.

“We have had a lot of experience on the field so one of the things we are really stressing is our leadership between all of our seniors. We have three captains right now, it shows that our team is really geared towards leadership up and down. Our senior class is leading from the guys who are playing and the guys who aren’t playing a lot, all nine.”

Princeton head coach Jim Barlow likes the leadership he is getting from Mills.

“Mills has done a great job being a leader in the back,” said Barlow. “He is keeping the team connected and has a good way of keeping shape and starting the team attack.”

In Barlow’s view, the team’s defensive unit did a great job collectively in the draw with St. John’s.

“That was about as well as Joe Saitta has ever played,” asserted Barlow. “He was really solid, plugging holes and getting all of his passes right, winning balls in the air. Patrick Barba was solid. Andrew Doar must have run 20 miles, he doesn’t get every play right but he gives you so much in terms of competing, mobility, and covering ground.”

Even though Princeton didn’t find the back of the net on the evening, Barlow was encouraged by his team’s offensive energy as it outshot the red Storm 13-11.

“I think we are going to get goals,” said Barlow, whose team piled up the goals last Sunday as it edged Seton Hall 5-4 with Julian Griggs and Cameron Porter each scoring twice as the Tigers improved to 1-1-1.

“I liked Cam’s play tonight, he is such a handful. Thomas [Sanner] had a very good first half. Brendan McSherry had his moments. Nico [Hurtado] had his moments. I think we are going to be a tough team for teams to deal with. We just got to keep trying to push it and keep getting results as we are doing it.”

While Barlow had hoped that the game would result in a win, he drew plenty of positives from the effort.

“It is a step in the right
direction, we still have a ways to go,” said Barlow, whose team hosts Georgetown on September 17 in a game to be televised on ESPNU before playing at Boston University on September 20. “I think we all feel good about the team we have and where it can go from here.”

Mills and his classmates are hoping to go on an Ivy title run this fall. “This is our last chance, the last two years we were one game away,” said Mills.

“We let the Harvard game and the Penn game both slip away from us last year and this year, I don’t feel that we are letting those slip. I look back toward the year we went 7-0, that was the year before our senior class came in. We are looking to replicate something like that special team did.”