MSU sophomore defender Jake Fullerton attempts to steal the ball from Illinois-Chicago forward Kevin Stoll during the game Wednesday at DeMartin Stadium at Old College Field.
The seniors on the MSU men’s soccer team have never lost to Michigan.
In the past three seasons the Spartans are 3-0-1 and the Big Bear Trophy, awarded to the winner of each game between the two teams, has found a temporary hibernation home in the Spartans’ trophy case.
Senior midfielder Ben Pirmann wants to end his MSU career with one more victory against U-M – a win that would boost the Spartans’ national profile and keep them in the running for the Big Ten regular season title.
“The Michigan vs. Michigan State rivalry game is the biggest game of the year in every sport and this isn’t a game we want to drop,” Pirmann said.
The Spartans (7-5-0 overall, 3-1-0 Big Ten) are entering the U-M game (2 p.m. Saturday in Ann Arbor) after two huge wins against Indiana and No. 14 Illinois-Chicago.
Senior co-captain Zac Scaffidi feels his team is finally playing to its potential.
“Everything has been working out to our favor the past couple games and we have to bring that same intensity into this game,” Scaffidi said. “It’s a big game and a big rivalry, but we can’t over-think the situation. We just have to execute.”
The Wolverines (9-2-2, 1-0-1) are unbeaten in their last six games and despite the Spartans success of late, MSU head coach Joe Baum is well aware of the challenge his team is going to face heading to Ann Arbor to take on the No. 18 ranked team in the country.
“We aren’t overconfident because we have a lot of respect for Michigan,” Baum said. “But I think we are feeling if we go down there and play a real solid defensive game we have a good chance.”
With both teams sitting in first and second place in total points and goals so far this season, a high-scoring game appears inevitable. But Baum wants to keep his team focused on the main theme of the season: team defense.
“Everyone is going to have to play shutdown defense,” Baum said.“If you get in a flow game with Michigan where there is a lot of chances both ways, that’s not healthy for us.”
After a slow start to the season, the Spartans defense has picked up its play and has only allowed four goals in the last four games.
This makes life easier for forward Doug DeMartin. The senior co-captain has recorded 13 goals on the season — putting him atop the Big Ten leaderboard. DeMartin has seen MSU’s defense take big strides thus far and when the back four are playing their best it rubs off on the team.
“We are defending really well, so that’s great to see,” DeMartin said. “One of the issues we were having early on was that we were giving up too many goals, but we’ve turned it around.”
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