Danny Ittycheria ’26 Leads Princeton Men’s Soccer to National Ranking

Freshman year was humbling for Danny Ittycheria ’26, a 6-foot-2-inch striker on the Princeton men’s soccer team. He had played for a high-level youth club and one of New Jersey’s top high school teams, but he wasn’t prepared for the physicality of the college game. 

“I’m skinny now and I was very skinny back in my freshman year,” he said. “I was getting really pushed off the ball.” 

Ittycheria felt like he had the skills to compete, so he focused on strength and fitness in the offseason. As a sophomore, he led Princeton with nine goals, but the team struggled, finishing seventh in the Ivy League. Last year as a junior, he scored nine goals again and the Tigers broke through, winning the Ivy Tournament and a spot in the NCAA Tournament.  

The following month, Ittycheria was selected by D.C. United in the second round of the Major League Soccer draft. He trained with United in the summer but put the pros on hold to focus on his final year at Princeton. 

The Tigers opened the season 7-1 and debuted this week at No. 13 in the United Soccer Coaches poll. They also rank No. 1 in the RPI, a key measure for at-large selections to the NCAA Tournament.  

Ittycheria is leading his team in goals with four in seven games played, including a perfectly timed header against Harvard Sept. 27 that would prove to be the decisive strike in a 1-0 win (the eighth game-winner of his college career). He left the game with an injury shortly afterward and missed the next game at Army West Point, but Princeton kept rolling with a 2-0 win against the Black Knights. 

Head coach Jim Barlow ’91 said Ittycheria has a broad skillset: He’s physically strong, good in the air, and the team’s GPS trackers show he does an incredible amount of high-intensity sprinting. He can play all three forward positions, so opponents don’t know where he’ll be on the field. 

“You have to worry about him,” Barlow said. “You have to pay attention to him, and he can show up so quickly behind your defense. … Even if we’re not giving it to him on that play, he’s drawn so much attention that other guys have more space.” 

Ittycheria added that Princeton has a range of attacking threats, any one of whom can go on a hot streak. Dynamic wing back Jack Jasinski ’26 scored three goals in the first four games and has assisted on three others, while midfielder Bardia Hormozi ’27 and forwards Kevin Kelley ’27 and Jackson Martin ’29 each have scored multiple goals this year. 

The Tigers are also one of Barlow’s most experienced teams. The starting 11 who took the field in the season opener against Rutgers had combined to start 225 previous times in their college careers. “Rutgers was undefeated at that time and playing their fifth game,” Ittycheria said, “and we were playing our first game and felt like we were the better team, from minute one to 90.” The Tigers never trailed, surging to a two-goal lead in the first half before winning 3-1. 

Through eight games, Princeton has allowed just three goals, a testament to the steady back line led by Giuliano Fravolini Whitchurch ’26 — “the backbone of the team,” according to Barlow — and timely saves by goalkeeper Andrew Samuels ’27.  

Barlow said Princeton’s 11 seniors learned from playing on teams that didn’t always get the results they were looking for.  

“I think over time they started to figure out how to win a college soccer game — how important defending is, how important [it is] that every guy transitions from attack to defense and defense to attack instantly … and how important it is to have the right mentality going into every game,” he said. “So far this year, they’ve risen to that challenge.”