“That compounds a lot of things,” Baum said. “Not only do we lose our sweeper, we lose our penalty kick taker and that’s a problem, but we’re going to adapt. That’s a serious blow to us, it really is. I thought he was one of our top four players.”

A Penn State player stepped on Rogers’ foot late in the second half, and he hobbled off the field in obvious pain.

“We’ve got the personnel to cover for it, but Josh is such a big part of our team in the back,” junior midfielder Zac Scaffidi said.

“It’ll be tough, but we’re going to have to win some games like that.”

Baum said he plans to move senior defender Rauwshan McKenzie back to sweeper in Rogers’ place.

“We gotta move Rauwshan back,” Baum said.

“Rauwshan will do a good job, I don’t question that, but now we lose Rauwshan’s presence.”

Moving McKenzie back creates a new opening, one that Baum said could be filled by freshman Nosa Iyoha for the time being.

“Now we’re replacing a senior captain with a freshman,” Baum said. “Nosa’s a fine player, but it’s asking a lot of him.”

Another option that Baum won’t rule out is moving Scaffidi into McKenzie’s slot.

“But then you’re giving up that because he’s such a good attacker,” Baum said. “So no matter what we do, it’s going to be a different look for sure.”

Scaffidi said he won’t have a problem if he’s moved back from his usual midfield position.

“Rauwshan is a really good defensive presence, offensively as well,” Scaffidi said.

“Moving me back there should be fine for the team. My work rate’s good, and I like defending.”

Big Ten TV

Sunday’s game against Wisconsin will be the Spartans first contest on the newly-formed Big Ten Network. The game will be broadcast live at 1:05 p.m. from Madison, Wisc.

“Sometimes in the Midwest, people in the Big Ten know about the conference, but other than the conference people, no one knows (about us),” Baum said. “I think we play a real nice caliber of soccer, so I think it’s nice to expose the standard of our game outside the region.”