Over the weekend, the men’s soccer team (4-1-1 overall, 1-0 Big Ten) played Maryland in what was their first Big Ten game of the season on Sept. 19, winning 1-0.
Maryland (1-3-2 overall, 0-1-1 Big Ten) , in its first season in the Big Ten, has yet to find its footing after coming up just short losing in the national championship last year.
“It was a great college soccer game — the crowd was electric, there was 6,000 people, (it was) live on the Big Ten Network,” Head Coach Damon Rensing said.
“I thought our guys rose to the occasion. Our leaders stepped up — we didn’t have Adam Montague, but I thought we came out well and were very aggressive at the start of the game, our ball movement was very good and we found a goal eight minutes in,” Rensing said.
The Spartans were able to get an early goal from junior midfielder Jason Stacy at the 8:03 mark and never looked back.
“In the first half our ball movement was good. We switched the point of attack and were able to kind of stretch them,” Rensing said. “Once you do that you’re going (to get) some one on one situations, and Jason (Stacy)’s good (in those) and he had a great finish.”
The team struggled at times in the second half to get any more offense going but didn’t need it as the Spartans were able to pull off yet another shutout.
“We would have liked to have better possession in the second half. I don’t think we held on to the ball, credit to Maryland and their pressure,” Rensing said. “We just defended well as a group, and we were very organized.”
The team benefited greatly from the return of redshirt senior forward Tim Kreutz , the team’s leading goal scorer in the 2013 season, as he was able to provide the assist on the only goal of the game on Friday.
The team is still hoping for the return of senior forward Adam Montague . His status has not been updated as of Sunday, but Rensing did not eliminate the possibility of his return.
“(Montague is) still up in the air, we’ll see,” Rensing said.
The team’s win over Maryland gives MSU a 1-0 start to conference play, which is a fine way to start in its own right, but to do it in an away game in front of what was officially reported in the box score chart as 6,014 people is an impressive feat.
“It’s one thing to start 1-0, its another thing to get a road win ... especially at Maryland,” Rensing said. “I think its going to be tough for (other) Big Ten teams to go in there and get results (win or tie), so when you can get three points at Maryland that’s a great sign.”
