Seventeen games played. Zero wins.
In its regular season finale Wednesday, the Northwestern men’s soccer team capped a winless regular season with a 2-1 road loss to Wisconsin.
Once again, the Wildcats (0-16-1, 0-6 Big Ten) came out lethargic and their defense allowed the Badgers (10-7-1, 3-3) too much room to maneuver. Only six minutes into the game, Wisconsin’s Dominic DePra sent a ball past NU goalkeeper Chris Berlin.
Just 15 minutes later, Wisconsin’s leading goal scorer, Narciso Fernandes, took a cross and put the Badgers up by two going into halftime.
“They really weren’t that good in the first half,” senior forward Jun Kim said. “We were just asleep for the first 20 minutes. We thought we were ready but from what I saw we were pretty down.”
Going for a ball with about 15 minutes remaining in the first half, Kim got knocked in the head and had to leave the game. He received 10 stitches that night.
Already missing scoring threats Steven Jedlinski and Grant Trimble because of injury, the loss of Kim made an already improbable comeback even less likely.
Still, the Cats didn’t roll over.
“We had to change things up in the second half because of Jun’s injury,” senior defender Nick Spoerke said. “We got things going and dominated on both sides of the ball.”
NU didn’t score until the 88th minute, when Spoerke converted on a rebound shot from David DeHorn. It was the first goal of Spoerke’s career and the defender knew he had given the team a boost.
“We had been in the game the whole time,” Spoerke said. “When I put in the shot, we started our mad rush for another goal.”
The Cats were able to fire off a few shots in the remaining two minutes, but none made it into the net. And although NU had a shooting frenzy down the stretch, the Badgers still outshot the Cats 17-10 in the game.
“We weren’t too down after the game,” Spoerke said. “We weren’t playing for a seed and we played good enough to win. They have 10 wins this season and have some very good players — we knew that coming in. Our guys talked after the game and we all agreed we are a better team than we were last year.”
After the game, Kim said it still hadn’t hit him that his NU career is almost over. The senior said he won’t be able to come to terms with the end until the final minutes of the next loss.
With the win, Wisconsin clinched the fourth seed in the Big Ten tournament. NU, on the other hand, had already been relegated to the conference’s last seed at No. 7. The Cats will take on second-seeded Michigan State Thursday in Columbus, Ohio.
And although NU didn’t reach the win column during the regular season, the team still joked about running the table in the the upcoming tournament and earning a bid to the NCAA tournament. In particular, the Cats still believe they have a chance against the Spartans — a team they lost to 6-2 on Oct. 1.
“We can do it,” Kim said. “Our offense is possessing the ball better and our defense is playing more stable. We just need to keep focusing on being mentally ready. There are no really, really good teams in the Big Ten. We aren’t afraid to play against Michigan State.”
