The Wisconsin (10-3-3 overall, 4-2-2 Big Ten) men’s soccer team defeated Ohio State (5-12-1 overall, 3-4-1 Big Ten) 2-1 Sunday, capping off its regular season with a successful Senior Day.
Casey Beyers, Brian Hail and Matej Radonic were all honored before the game for their contributions to the program, and the Badgers kept up the good spirits with their performance.
Wisconsin dominated proceedings in the first half, amassing 15 shots and largely controlling the possession and flow of the game.
Wisconsin opened up the scoring inside the 16th minute, as junior defender Enda O’Neill notched his first goal of the season after bundling home a loose ball in the box.
Following the junior’s strike, the Badgers saw a lot of the ball, but were unable to get close to the Ohio State goal and create truly dangerous chances. Wisconsin was shooting frequently, but not accurately, and not from high-percentage positions.
However, Wisconsin kicked into something of another gear with about five minutes left in the half.
After taking three straight corner kicks, junior forward Christopher Mueller led a Badgers counterattack into Ohio State territory, before shooting and forcing Ohio State goalkeeper Siegfried Parker into a save. The ball then fell fortuitously to forward Isaac Schlenker, who was able to fire into the far post for his first goal of the season.
“I felt like I was gonna score for probably the past five or six games, and it just hasn’t come,” Schlenker said. “The fact that a rebound came my way for once, you know, I took the opportunity, and it’s just a great feeling.”
The Badgers were a little less enterprising offensively in the second half, only posting four shots and largely focusing on seeing out the game.
While this type of pragmatism is typical of John Trask’s team, it was made even more necessary by Mike Catalano’s red card inside the 64th minute.
Coach Trask urged his team to make better decisions in light of Catalano’s second yellow, which will cause him to miss the first game of the Big Ten soccer championship.
“We’ve got to’ be smarter in moments when we’re up to 2-0 and sitting on a yellow card,” Trask said. “We exposed ourselves and that’s the ramification of it. It’s unfortunate.”
Catalano’s red card set up a somewhat nerve-wracking finish for the Badgers, who conceded twelve shots in the second half and allowed Ohio State’s Yaw Amankwa to score inside the 86th minute.
Still, the Badgers were deserving of the win and able to hold onto to the victory, much to the delight of Schlenker.
“That was probably the longest half of my life,” Schlenker said. “Definitely very stressful. You know we worked hard, we battled, and that’s why we made it through.”
The Badgers will take on Ohio State again next Sunday as the Big Ten soccer championship kicks off in Indianapolis next weekend.
After combining for just eight wins in the previous two seasons, the No. 24 Badgers have 10 this year, with expectations for the squad presumably raised.
They will hope to be far more than just visitors in Indianapolis.
