HARRY SITUATION: Princeton University men’s soccer player Harry Heffernan controls the ball last Thursday as Princeton hosted St. John’s in its home opener. Junior midfielder Heffernan scored 1:05 into the contest but it wasn’t enough as Princeton fell 3-1 in dropping to 0-2. The Tigers host Boston University on September 16 before playing at Drexel on September 20. (Photo by Frank Wojciechowski)

Coming off a tough 1-0 defeat at West Virginia to start its 2016 campaign, the Princeton University men’s soccer team was happy to be in the friendly confines of Roberts Stadium last Thursday evening for its home opener against St. John’s.

With a group of Tiger football players massed behind the opposing goalie to provide vocal support, the crowd on hand was fired up to see Princeton break into the win column.

Princeton didn’t wait long to give their fans something to cheer about as Harry Heffernan found the back of the net 1:05 into the contest to give the Tigers a 1-0 lead and their first score of the season.

Princeton head coach Jim Barlow liked the way his team came out of the gate against the Red Storm.

“We started the game well; there was a lot of question marks at the start of the game because the lineup was a little different,” said Barlow.

“We looked at Vik (Pothuri) wide on one side and Harry (Heffernan) wide on the other side and with the injuries that we have had and the guys red-carded, we had to shuffle things around. We got off to a good start.”

While the Tigers hit a lull later in the half, they maintained their 1-0 advantage heading into intermission.

“You can tell that St John’s has a lot more games under their belt than we do; we hit a little bit of a wall at 25 minutes into the first half,” said Barlow.

“We managed to get through it without conceding too many dangerous chances. I think getting to halftime with a lead was good.”

While Princeton seemed to get its legs back in the early stages of the second half, the roof fell in on the Tigers as the Red Storm tied the game at the 65:44 mark and then added two unanswered goals in the next 18 minutes of play to pull away to a 3-1 victory.

“I thought we started the second half well and had a couple of really good chances to get the second goal and if we get the second goal, we are in good shape,” said Barlow.

“You are up a goal in the second half, you can’t give up three goals and I thought we gave up three bad goals. We have been hanging our hat on being tougher than we were last year defensively and not conceding soft goals. We didn’t make them work hard for a couple of those, for sure.”

Princeton will be looking to take a page out of St. John’s in terms of work rate as it hosts Boston University on September 16 before playing at Drexel on September 20.

“The pieces are still being figured out and we have got to grind out wins,” said Barlow.

“St. John’s is a good example of a team that knows how to grind out wins, they just work all over the field. They make it hard for you, they put pressure on you. We have got to find a way to never, ever be satisfied with how the game is going. That is how they played today, I give them credit for that. They kept pushing it.”