A crowd of 635 braved the cold to watch the MSU men’s soccer team best No. 15 Ohio State 3-0 Sunday at Old College Field.
MSU began its win by keeping the ball in Ohio State’s territory for almost all of the first half.
Despite the pressure, the Spartans (6-2-1, 2-1-0 Big Ten) couldn’t capitalize on their opportunities, sending many of the players to the locker room frustrated.
“It was frustrating because with the chances we had, we didn’t miss by much,” junior forward Brett Konley said.
“The fact of the matter is, when we went into halftime, the score was still 0-0, so you still have to work twice as hard. You can’t sit back and relax.”
Head coach Joe Baum said he recognized his team’s troubles but said they were a typical characteristic of the game.
“Soccer’s a funny game in that you try to create chances and you hope you can finish them,” he said.
“We had created some good chances. We were hoping if we continued to do that, we’d finish a couple.”
And they finally completed a chance only eight minutes into the second half.
Sophomore midfielder John Minagawa-Webster took a pass from senior midfielder Steve Arce and headed it past OSU goalkeeper Kerry Thompson for the Spartans’ first goal of the game.
The play unfolded exactly as he had hoped, Arce said.
“Basically, because of my lack of ability heading the ball, I hang out at the outside of the box and hope for a second ball coming up,” he said. “The guys know when that happens just run to the back post and luckily someone’s there to score a nice header.”
But Ohio State (6-2-1, 1-1-0) didn’t back down and threatened to tie the game. MSU’s sophomore goalkeeper Mike Robinson made four second-half saves and ended with seven.
Konley gave the team some added comfort by sprinting past a Buckeye defender to take a pass from freshman forward Ryan McMahen and sneak it into the net with 11:42 left to play.
“Our whole mentality was to get that second goal,” Konley said.
“If we were going to get that second goal, that’s game. They have to come back twice as hard.”
The final Spartan goal came with only 17 seconds left in the game when freshman midfielder Jordan Gruber turned an assist from senior defenseman Paul Vance into a goal.
The Spartans offensive showing came as a surprise, even to the Spartan players themselves.
They finished with 11 shots to the Buckeyes’ 14.
“We felt, coming into the game, if we could play real good team defense, we could keep it close,” Baum said. “And, we felt, if we were fortunate, we could get a goal on them.”
The Spartans next take on Oakland at 4 p.m. Wednesday at Old College Field.
“That’s a big rivalry for us,” Baum said.
