MAKING HIS POINT: Princeton University men’s soccer player Danny Ittycheria, right, celebrates after a goal in a game earlier this season. Last Saturday, sophomore forward Ittycheria tallied two goals to help Princeton defeat Columbia 4-0. The Tigers, now 4-4-1 overall and 1-1-1 Ivy League, were slated to play at Seton Hall on October 10 before resuming Ivy action with a game at Cornell on October 14. (Photo by Frank Wojciechowski)

By Justin Feil

Danny Ittycheria has worried less about himself and more about the team in his second season with the Princeton University men’s soccer team.

The result has the sophomore forward making a bigger impact for the Tigers.

Ittycheria scored twice in a game for the second time this season to help Princeton defeat Columbia, 4-0, Saturday in an Ivy League matchup. The win helped Princeton improve to 4-4-1 overall, 1-1-1 in Ivy League play.

“It was a huge win to get our first Ivy League win of the season,” said Ittycheria. “It’s much needed momentum for the next upcoming games. It’s a huge confidence booster.”

The Tigers go on the road this Saturday to play at Cornell after playing at Seton Hall on October 10. Princeton is looking for consistency as the Tigers haven’t won two straight games yet this season although they have also only lost two in a row once this year.

“We’ve had some great wins like this one,” said Ittycheria. “But we’ve had some pretty poor losses. All of us are especially frustrated with the loss to Dartmouth — I think we all want that back. We feel great after a very convincing win at home. But we know we have so much more to prove. The league is wide open, but we’re still at the bottom, even if it’s only by a point or two. We’re still at the bottom. We know we have a lot more work to do. We’re not satisfied at all.”

Ittycheria, a 6’2, 170-pound native of Warren, has paced the Tigers’ offense. His seven goals are more than double any other player’s total, and he has 15 points. Ittycheria put a lot of focus into his training over the summer. He returned with a better sense of the increased pace of the college game, and looked differently at his role.

“During the offseason, I put in a lot of work in improving my fitness and also staying sharp,” said Ittycheria. “And also mentally, I’ve felt more confident in myself coming in. Last year, I was really focused on making some sort of impact. Now the mindset has completely changed and I’m trying to get a win for the team instead of focusing on myself.”

He’s part of an offensive group that has been productive recently. The unit also scored four goals in a win over Monmouth, and the Tigers have shown they can score with a variety of weapons. Nico Nee has a pair of goals and five assists for nine points and Will Francis has six points on three goals. Ian Nunez, who also scored Saturday, has two goals for four points.

“We’re pretty versatile,” said Ittycheria. “We have a lot of different kinds of players, especially attacking-wise. One of the things that is going to probably be the key for us is our depth in attacking. We have pacy guys like myself, Walker (Gillespie), and other people, and we have players that are more technical and can have slower pace but are still very quality like Nico, and other players like that. The versatility up top and the depth to be able to sub in and out attacking-wise is going to cause a lot of teams to handle all of us or one of us, and the key for us is one of those guys each game stepping up, whether it’s starters or people coming off the bench. That will be huge.”

Ittycheria has improved his production since a year ago when he played in four games and netted a goal and two assists. He’s playing at another level this year.

“I think with a lot of guys that go from Academy soccer to college soccer there is a learning curve,” said Princeton head coach Jim Barlow. “It’s so fast and hectic and chaotic and competitive. In a lot of the Academy games, it has a slower pace to the game. In college with the subs being able to be unlimited and being able to come in and out of the game, the game never really slows down. It just takes a little time to understand how that impacts when to make your runs and the timing of your runs and how little time you have the box in these games. He’s done a good job of understanding that and improving at the timing of his runs and his ability to get dangerous and get shots off. And every time you score, I think your confidence grows and I think he’s really confident right now.”

Princeton, too, is gaining confidence. The Tigers showed solid moments despite a 3-0 loss to Georgetown in their midweek game that preceded the Columbia contest. In that game, Princeton hit the crossbar with the first real scoring chance of the game, a potential goal that could have given them early momentum. Bouncing back like they did to dominate Columbia was a good sign.

“From top to bottom, we were good all-around,” said Ittycheria. “Defensively we were sharp, offensively we were sharp. Scoring four goals in a game is always pretty good.”

Three of the goals came in the first half. Ittycheria opened the scoring with a great individual effort, outdueling two Columbia defenders to create a breakaway chance that he finished. Princeton’s second goal only one minute later started with a creative pass from Whit Gamblin to Walker Gillespie who sent it to Will Francis for a terrific team goal. Nunez scored a third goal off a Columbia miscue. Ittycheria credited the fast start to Princeton’s attitude and approach.

“It was us believing in ourselves and playing to our strengths,” said Ittycheria. “Getting the first goal pretty early in the half only propels us even more mentally and also lowers the other team’s confidence. Once we got the first one, it was huge. Also getting two goals in one minute also helped a lot.”

Princeton has the firepower to be able to create chances. The Tigers are hoping they can build on the offensive outburst as they go in the second half of the season.

“We were able to have a couple different ways to get dangerous, and I think when we’re able to do that, it starts with the other team having to worry about us getting behind them,” said Barlow. “And we’re at our best when our forwards are defending really hard and counter-pressing and our transition defending up the field helps us win the ball back in dangerous spots, and I think we did a good job of that.”

At the defensive end of the pitch, Princeton picked up its first shutout of the season. Junior goalie Khamari Hadaway made a pair of saves for the shutout. Hadaway played in half of Princeton’s games a year ago, and is another player who has grown considerably since last season.

“He’s really looked so at ease in the goal this year and his presence and confidence and he’s a really talented, athletic, quick goalkeeper,” said Barlow. “This year, he just looks like he’s experienced and he knows when to be off his line. He commands the box pretty well on crosses and restarts, and he’s doing well as an option to get the ball back at his feet and distribute from the back too. He’s come up with some big saves for us. He just has been rock solid in pretty much every game this year.”

Princeton was good on both ends of the field Saturday. Their offense was clicking and their defense came up with big plays to preserve the shutout.

“I think it was probably the best 90 minutes we’ve played,” said Barlow. “We were from start to finish the most focused we’ve been — disciplined and determined. We had a few
moments at the end of the first half where we were sloppy and Columbia had kind of a breakaway with about three minutes left before halftime and Whit Gamblin made an incredible recovery to catch up to the guy and save a goal because he had already dribbled past Khamari and he was about to shoot into the open net and Whit made a great play. If that goes in and it becomes 3-1 then momentum could have changed.”

Instead it’s Princeton that has momentum going into a vital stretch. Princeton sits in a fifth-place tie with Penn in the Ivy standings with four points. Only the top four teams will advance to the inaugural Ivy League tournament which is being held on November 10 and 12 at the home field of the top seed. Cornell, in seventh, two points behind Princeton, is a big game for both teams looking to move up.

“It’s a huge week,” said Barlow. “We have an away match against Cornell, who’s a really incredibly talented team that was picked to win the league and they’ve already beaten the defending national champions so that will be a huge game on the weekend. Seton Hall is also a really important game because having played such a hard schedule, our RPI is still very strong. If we can continue to get a couple wins over some of these top teams, we still have Seton Hall and Fordham on our schedule that are both very high RPIs, if we can get a couple wins and continue to pick up some wins in the league that could position us well from an RPI standpoint.”

Princeton’s players will be juggling midterm exams this week as they prepare for their games. The Tigers are feeling better about their play after coming off an encouraging win. Princeton looks to build confidence and a win streak with four Ivy games remaining and a pair of strong non-conference foes.

“The whole team is bought in from top to bottom,” said Ittycheria. “The leaders and upperclassmen have done a great job in creating an environment that makes everyone encouraged to be bought into the process and be bought into potentially having a successful season. That’s one of the most encouraging signs. It doesn’t matter if one guy is playing a lot or on the bench, we’re all encouraging each other. The guys coming off the bench are making a huge difference. And the guys that come out are trying to do the same and keep encouraging the team and the intensity.”