DANNY BOY: Princeton University men’s soccer player Danny Hampton chases down the ball in a 2018 game. Last Saturday, senior Hampton got an assist to help Princeton defeat Columbia 2-1. The Tigers, now 8-3-1 overall and 1-1-1 Ivy League, play at Harvard on October 26 before hosting Virginia Tech on October 29. (Photo by Frank Wojciechowski)

By Justin Feil

After scoring on restarts in two straight games for the Princeton University men’s soccer team, Danny Hampton figured in the scoring again last Saturday, serving an assist to Richard Wolf help the Tigers edge Columbia 2-1 as they earned their first Ivy League win this fall.

The tally gave Princeton a lead it would never lose in a 2-1 win over the visiting Lions on Myslik Field at Roberts Stadium on Saturday afternoon. The win helped the Tigers improve to 8-3-1 overall and more importantly, 1-1-1 Ivy League, to move into a third-place tie in the conference.

“From here on out, it’s all must-win games for the most part,” said Hampton, a senior midfielder/forward who hails from Marlton, N.J.

“Typically for the Ivy League, you have to be upwards of a 5-1-1 record, that’s the typical range for the Ivy champions. Right now, there are already two games we’ve dropped points in. We have to win out from here and hope Yale drops one as well. We’re looking to control our own destiny and focus on Harvard right now.”

Princeton will play at winless Harvard (0-9-1 overall, 0-3 Ivy) on Saturday as they look to run their unbeaten streak to five games since losing 1-0 at Dartmouth on October 5.

“We try to just focus on being prepared and excited and worry more about what we can control,” said Princeton head coach Jim Barlow, whose team bounced back from the loss to the Big Green to pull out a 1-1 tie against Brown.

“We want our guys to enjoy the challenges that each game presents, and just go for it and trust their instincts and just work together without fear or pressure or other things that just get in the way. After we went down a goal and down a man to Brown, the guys just left everything they had on the field to get back into that game, and we wound up very deserving of more than a tie. After the match, one of our best players walked up to me and told me how much fun that game was. That made me feel good about how our guys are handling these games. It helps to have gone through so many close, intense games over the past few seasons too – there’s very little these guys haven’t dealt with before.”

Hampton has been in the Tigers program the last four years, but until this fall has been limited by injuries. He started four games last year before a severe strain of his abductor cost him all but the final week of the season. He has come on strong of late to give the Princeton offense a boost, having had just one goal in his first three years before scoring goals against Brown and Lehigh in back-to-back games prior to the assist against Columbia.

“My health has been the biggest thing that’s held me back throughout my career, but my teammates and coaches do a good job of keeping me positive, always making sure I’m smiling,” said Hampton.

“I think they’ve helped me along the way and given me the confidence so that when I get on the field I know I belong there and they know that at the end of the day I’ll do whatever I can for the team. I came in as a center mid. I started playing center back recently. On Saturday, I moved up to attacking mid. I’m willing to play wherever. The team always comes first and that’s the biggest thing, and I think the guys are realizing that and are playing for one another and that’s when we do our best, so it’s a credit to them.”

In picking up his assist, Hampton found just what he was looking for when he took the restart outside the right side of the 18-yard line in the 27th minute of the game. His ball arched over the defense to the far side just outside of the 6-yard line and Wolf headed it back inside the right side of the goal.

“I always go for the back post there,” said Hampton. “Richard was able to lose his man. He did a really good job of baiting his man inside and then backing out. All I had to do was put it to the back post, and he was able to put a great header on it back post. We work on that all the time in practice and were finally able to get a header off a restart which is good to see. Hopefully we can keep that rolling in the Ivy League because restarts are so huge. I would say 65-70 percent of the goals in the Ivy League are off restarts. If you’re able to dominate the restarts offensively and defensively, it’ll change the entirety of the game.”

The Tigers had struggled with shot selection, timing and crossing the ball well against Dartmouth and Brown. They still had plenty of opportunities in those games but didn’t capitalize.

Barlow, for his part, isn’t surprised to see Hampton taking a role in sparking the Princeton offense.

“We’ve always known that Danny is very talented and can have a huge impact on the field,” said Barlow.

“Last year he was very good in our first two games, scored a great goal against Bradley in our second game, and then suffered another terrible injury in our first home game. He missed almost the entire season. During this recent stretch, he’s finally healthier than he has been in a really long time. And he’s so versatile that he can help us in any part of the field.”

In the win over Columbia, Princeton’s second goal came as the result of good preparation and hard work. Kevin O’Toole blocked the ball as Brown goalie Michael Collodi dribbled it up the field, stole the ball and dribbled it into the empty goal to give the Tigers a 2-0 lead at halftime. It was déjà vu for the two teams.

“We had the same exact play two years in a row against them,” Hampton said.

“We knew that their goalkeeper is aggressive. Kevin did a really good job of reading his big touch. He took one touch and then he took an extra big touch and Kevin jumped on it and anticipated it and was rewarded for it. That’s the Ivy League; you have to grind out goals any way you can. Rich’s goal where he was able to leave his man in the box off a restart and Kevin just grinding and reading what the keeper was doing were two classic Ivy League goals.”

The early lead gave the Tigers a huge lift on their way to the victory. Princeton gave up a goal in the second half, and the Tigers held onto the lead thanks to an incredible diving save by goalie Jacob Schachner. The last of his career-high seven saves came on a Columbia header with five minutes left in the game. “It was incredible,” said Hampton. “It changed the season.”

The big plays helped the Tigers pick up their first win of the Ivy season and kept their hopes of repeating as league champions alive. Yale at 3-0 has a one-game lead over Dartmouth (2-1 Ivy) with a quartet of teams at 1-1-1, including Penn, Columbia, and Brown in addition to Princeton.

“The biggest challenge all year has been injuries, and hopefully we can get healthier down the stretch now,” said Barlow.

“We also know we will need some help with other results but we can’t worry about that as we have a huge task ahead of us in trying to get wins in these remaining matches. We’ve always worked to be a team that has gotten better as the season goes on, and the frustration with the shortness of our season is that we are usually peaking at the time the regular season is ending. We want to continue to improve and put everything we have into our remaining five regular season games, and then see where that leaves us.”

While Princeton dug themselves a hole to start the Ivy campaign, the tie against Brown sparked a turnaround.

“I thought we dominated that game, as well,” said Hampton. “Their coach [Patrick Laughlin] said after the game that we’re one of the hardest working teams he’s ever seen, which was a great compliment. We also went down a man in that game. We were down a goal and playing down a man so to come back in that game almost felt like a win to us. To come back and get a late goal at the end of the game was huge for us.”

To get their first Ivy win Saturday was even bigger and the Tigers go on the road Saturday to try to pick up another.

“Especially the upperclassmen. They know the difference between an out-of-conference game and Ivy League game that’s usually more physical like (Saturday) was,” Hampton said.

“The younger guys are starting to pick up on that for sure. I saw a big change in the way guys are playing in terms of the intensity, and the grit that they showed to grind out the result. In years past, we probably would have dropped that game. It’s good to see that the guys are trying to change things now.”