ENDING WITH A BANG: Princeton University men’s soccer player Nico Hurtado boots the ball in a game this season. Senior midfielder Hurtado and his classmates ended their Princeton career with a bang as the Tigers defeated Yale 3-0 in the season finale. All nine seniors started the contest and all three Princeton goals came from members of the Class of 2016. The win gave Princeton a final record of 10-5-2 overall and 3-3-1 Ivy League. (Photo by Frank Wojciechowski)

For the seniors on the Princeton University men’s soccer team, the season finale against visiting Yale earlier this month left them with memories that will last a lifetime. 

“We started all nine seniors in that game; I think it was the first time they had all been on the field together,” said Princeton head coach Jim Barlow.

The Class of 2016 went out with a bang as it keyed a 3-0 win over the Bulldogs on November 14, giving the Tigers a final record of 10-5-2 overall and 3-3-1 Ivy League.

“I think the guys were fired up to send the seniors off with a really good win and it was nice to get out to an early lead,” said Barlow whose team jumped out to a 3-0 lead with all three goals coming from seniors (John Kendall, Thomas Sanner, and Andrew Doar).

“I thought our guys did well in the first 30 minutes just establishing control of the game and getting some good goals.”

The team’s Class of 2016, which included goalie Ben Hummel, Jack Hilger, Nico Hurtado, Brendan McSherry, Josh Miller, and Bing Lin in addition to Kendall, Sanner, and Doar, achieved a lot.

“I think the senior class wound up being the sixth most successful class in Princeton history in Ivy League games,” said Barlow, noting that the class helped Princeton go 16-7-5 in Ivy League play and 36-23-8 overall in their four years.

“The hardest part for these guys is that they didn’t get to the tournament. I think their freshman year and their sophomore year, they were one win away from winning the league and they won the league in their junior year. This year they were able to get back to 10 wins. It was an incredible record. They have set a high bar for the years to come. We are going to miss these guys, it was a really good group.”

While Princeton was disappointed to not be in the Ivy title race down the stretch, hitting the 10-win mark for a second straight year was a big positive for the program.

“In our sport, any time you get 10 wins it is a good season,” asserted Barlow, whose team went 7-2-1 in its last 10 contests.

“It is not that common. The last time we got an at large bid to the NCAA tournament in 2009, we only had nine wins. Last year we had 11 wins and this year we had 10 wins and we didn’t get in. The guys on the inside know how hard it is to get 10 wins. Every game is just so close and I think our guys did a really good job throughout the season. We had a couple of games that got away from us and those games happened to be really important games. The Dartmouth game (a 1-0 loss on October 3), the Cornell game (a 2-1 loss on October 31) and the Columbia game (a 2-0 loss on October 17) were all games that we don’t feel like we played our best.”

Barlow feels good about the future of the program, pointing out that there is a good core of talent in place.

“We are losing some good guys but if you look at the team we had on the field towards the end of the year, I think there is a really good nucleus to build on,” said Barlow, noting that the team returns goalie Josh Haberman,  All-Ivy defender, Patrick Barba, Mark Romanowski Henry Martin, and Greg Seifert on the back line, Sean McSherry, Bryan Costa, Vikram Pothuri, Daniel Bowkett, and Matt Mangini in the midfield with Jeremy Colvin, Bryan Prudil, Harry Heffernan, and Will Lentz coming back up top.

“We feel like we have some good starting points to build on, it is figuring out where the goals are coming from but that is always the hardest part. We thought it would be the case this year losing Cam Porter who had 15 goals but we were able to score a ton of goals this year. We scored more goals than any other Ivy team by a lot.”

In order to get back to the top of the Ivy standings, those returning players need to apply the lessons they learned this fall.

“I think it is always hard to describe what the Ivy League games are like until you are in them with how much is on the line and the fact that you don’t get a second chance because you only play each team once and there is no tournament,” said Barlow.

“Until the guys actually got a taste of it, it is tough to know how hard you have to compete and how every little detail matters. We did feel like this year we gave up too many goals that were preventable so that is a big focus going into next year.”