Junior forward Doug DeMartin chases down Western Kentucky’s Ian Smith. DeMartin scored one of the two quick goals for the Spartans during their rally in the second half. The Spartans closed out the game with a win of 2-0.
After a lethargic first half, MSU men’s soccer coach Joe Baum delivered a halftime speech that propelled his team to two goals in 68 seconds early in the second half, as the Spartans knocked off Western Kentucky, 2-0, on Sunday afternoon at Old College Field.
The win capped off a successful weekend of play for the Spartans in the MSU/Radisson Soccer Classic, as the Green and White picked up a 1-0 win over Oregon State the previous Friday.
“He gave a great halftime speech,” junior midfielder Zac Scaffidi said. “He wasn’t mad, he just motivated us. We were sluggish, and he picked us up, told us what to do and we executed just like he told us to.”
Baum wasn’t favorable in his assessment of his team’s first half performance, as he, too, called it sluggish.
“I just felt that we came out and were a half step behind both offensively and defensively,” he said. “We looked a little tired and didn’t have a lot of jump in our legs, so we just tried to refocus at halftime and talk about the next 15-20 minutes
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