After several opportunities, the Spartans finally saw the ball hit the back of the net for the first time in double overtime, sealing a 1-0 win.
Unfortunately, it was the back of their net.
The Spartans (8-3-1, 3-2 Big Ten) battled No. 6 Penn State for 110 minutes in an exciting back-and-forth match Sunday at Old College Field.
With a win against Penn State (8-3-1, 4-1-1), the Spartans could have jumped to second in the Big Ten behind Indiana, giving the game more intensity than most regular season games, head coach Joe Baum said.
“There’s just so much on the line for both teams,” Baum said. “It was almost like a playoff game. Both teams just played 100 percent. It was very physical, very intense, but it wasn’t dirty.”
The physicality and fury of the game were beyond what had been seen in prior games, but junior forward Brett Konley said the matchup required that level of play.
“You have to play physical, play determined and you have to play with control,” he said. “In order to beat big teams, you have to do all three of them.”
Both teams saw chances for scoring, but solid goalkeeping kept the score blank.
And a tough Penn State defense further limited the Spartans’ good goal-scoring chances.
“We were trying to play some through balls and catch them off-guard,” Konley said. “Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn’t, but they were real quick to recover when we would try to counter.”
Sophomore goalkeeper Mike Robinson did his part to frustrate the Penn State offense, making several impressive saves to keep the Spartans in the game.
Penn State midfielder Derek Potteiger provided a shot that hit the crossbar, bounced out to forward Chad Severs who should have had an easy goal. But Robinson found his way in front of the ball for the save.
In the second half, Penn State pushed toward the net, pulling Robinson to the side in order to set up a shot in the opposite side of the field, but Robinson crossed the net to prevent a goal.
Robinson tallied five saves in the game, but couldn’t earn a sixth in two sudden-death overtimes.
Penn State midfielder Brent Jacquette sent a pass to Severs who made his way past the defenders and put it into the net to win the game.
“We knew it was just going to come down to one bounce or one fortunate play,” Baum said. “They got a good bounce to a kid and he buried it. It’s not like we screwed up on the play.”
Baum said the team has no reason to be ashamed.
“If you look at the stats, it’s a dead-even game, we just came out on the short end of it today,” Baum said. “I’ve been on top of these, and I’ve been on the bottom. Today we were on the short end, but you can’t fault their effort.”
It is still tough to ignore the loss in spite of a strong Spartan showing, Robinson said.
“We played good defense, and it’s frustrating to lose a 1-0 game playing good defense,” Robinson said. “You’re hoping for at least some lucky bounces, great plays, anything so that we can get a goal too. But it just didn’t happen today.”
The loss drops the team in the Big Ten standings, but the players still have a lot to look forward to, Robinson said.
“You walk out a little bit down,” he said. “But we know we’ve got a lot of season left - three games and we’re ready.”
