HOLDING THE FORT: Princeton University men’s soccer player Patrick Barba, left, goes after the ball in a game last fall. Last Saturday, senior defender and captain Barba helped Princeton hold the fort as it played two men down for most of the second half in a 1-0 loss at West Virginia (2-1) in its season opener. The Tigers will look to get on the winning track when they host St, John’s on September 8 in their season opener. (Photo by Frank Wojciechowski)

Opening its season at No. 24 West Virginia last Saturday evening, the Princeton University men’s soccer team knew it faced a huge challenge.

But the clash with the Mountaineers turned into a decidedly uphill battle as the Tigers had two players ejected due to red cards and played most of the second half with just nine players.

Already down 1-0 at halftime, Princeton fought valiantly, generating chances and holding the fort defensively but it couldn’t overcome that disadvantage as it fell by that margin.

Princeton head coach Jim Barlow acknowledged that his team faced some formidable obstacles as the game unfolded.

“Playing two men down on a field that is 120 yards by 80 made it really difficult for us,” said Barlow, noting that West Virginia’s field is the largest the Tigers are likely to play on this season.

“It was frustrating that we were in that position. It was a physical game. It was a hard first game in a lot of ways and we were disappointed to not get the result.”

Barlow was disappointed to see that the only score of the game came on a restart that took a while to develop as officials sorted out which Princeton player they were going to cite for a yellow card on the foul that led to the free kick.

“I think the delay there impacted our ability to get ready for the restart; we just didn’t look as organized as we usually did for the restart and they served it and scored,” lamented Barlow.

“We had really been making an emphasis on defending restarts and we just didn’t do a good job of marking and beating them to the first ball and making sure we were all in a good position to make that play which ended up deciding the game.”

Coming into the second half, Princeton was looking to make connections offensively through its midfield but that all changed when Matthew Mancini received a red card in the 48th minute and Nicholas Badalamenti got his second yellow card to get ejected some 11 minutes later.

“To be fair, we had a bunch of corner kicks and restarts and a couple of half-chances that we just weren’t able to get something better out of,” said Barlow.

“We said after the game, we don’t want to talk about any moral victories. We didn’t win the game. The guys competed and we expected them to compete. When they got down two, the guys they didn’t quit and we wouldn’t expect them to quit. We have a good team and we have good starting points. When we don’t get the result we are looking for, we are disappointed.”

While the outcome was frustrating for Princeton, a number of Tigers produced good performances.

“Brian Costa was really, really good, especially when we went down two guys; it seemed like he was doing the running of five guys in the midfield,” said Barlow.

“A couple of freshmen go their first appearances and both played pretty much the whole second half and did really well, Benjy Issroff in the back and Ben Martin in the midfield. Both of this guys were really solid. I thought in the middle of the back with Patrick Barba and Mark Romanowski and the middle of the field starting off with Costa and Vikram Pothuri, Matt Mangini and then Ben Martin, that part of the field was really solid for us.”

The Tigers will look for a more solid performance at both ends of the field  when they host St. John’s on September 8 in their home opener.

“An obvious focus will be figuring out that restart and any others what our shape is like and how we can improve that,” said Barlow.

“We just need to figure out a better chemistry in putting the pieces together a little better in the attack and how we can create more chances and how we can get forward without being predictable.”