Junior midfielder Zac Scaffidi, left, and Dave Hertel, right, mourn their loss in the first round of the NCAA Championship on Saturday at Old College Field. The Spartans took on the Oakland University Golden Grizzlies and lost the game 2-1.
The MSU men’s soccer team fought to the very end, but couldn’t overcome a two-goal deficit and was eliminated from the NCAA Tournament by Oakland, 2-1, Saturday afternoon at Old College Field.
“A lot of teams after 2-0 might have went in the tank,” MSU head coach Joe Baum said. “But I don’t think we hesitated.”
After not registering a shot through the first 35 minutes of the game, Oakland scored on its first shot, as Pitor Nowak beat senior goalkeeper Chris Austin to give the Golden Grizzlies a 1-0 lead.
Then, in the next minute, Oakland was still buzzing from the goal and rang two balls off the crossbar.
But by far the biggest play of the game came with under a minute to play in the first half as MSU senior defender Rauwshan McKenzie was sent off after receiving a red card for allegedly striking an Oakland player on an MSU corner kick attempt.
Oakland quickly capitalized on MSU losing its best defender, putting another ball into the goal in the opening minutes of the second half to take a 2-0 lead.
The Spartans cut the lead to 2-1 on a goal by junior forward Doug DeMartin, who knocked in the rebound of his own penalty kick.
After that, MSU applied a lot of pressure, but couldn’t come up with the tying goal.
“When they got that goal early in the second half, it looked kind of bleak
for us,” Baum said. “But I knew this team wouldn’t quit and I knew they’d keep fighting and it turned into a great game.”
Austin made two saves for MSU while Steve Clark stopped nine shots, including five in the second half, for Oakland.
The Grizzlies now advance to play Notre Dame in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
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