The Northwestern men’s soccer team turned a “winnable” game into just another loss in its string of winless matches now at 34.
In what is potentially the Wildcats’ last home contest of the season, they fell 5-2 to Wisconsin (9-7-1, 2-3 Big Ten).
NU (0-12-3, 0-6) scored twice for the second straight game, but the team also allowed the most goals it has all year.
Senior Dan Doman managed to net one of those goals, but he wasn’t satisfied with the individual achievement.
“I’d trade all the goals in my career just for a win,” Doman said.
In terms of individual accolades, Wisconsin’s Aaron Lauber was the game’s big winner — scoring four of the Badgers’ five goals.
Lauber tied Andy Rectenwal’s 1986 school record for most goals in a game. He now has 10 tallies on the season, second on the team behind Dominic DaPra.
DaPra leads the Big Ten with 15 goals and ranks 10th in the nation in goals per game.
“Every time we lost possession of the ball, our goal was to find out where (DaPra) was on the field,” Doman said. “We were definitely focusing in on No. 7.”
The Cats managed to contain DaPra, but defensive mistakes in the box cost them the game.
“You just can’t give up three goals on six shots,” Doman said. “You’re doomed any time that happens.”
NU coach Tim Lenahan said the team has stopped playing the aggressive defense it displayed earlier in the season.
“You can do one of two things,” Lenahan said. “You can either attack or you can defend, so if we attack, we leave ourselves open to attack.”
After Lauber scored his first goal of the match, the Cats came back to tie the game on Doman’s shot.
Lauber then took over, scoring the next three goals before NU got one back on freshman Brett Grob’s header in the 67th minute.
Wisconsin’s Nick Van Sicklen rounded out the scoring with the Badgers’ fifth goal at 70:00.
Lenahan attributed Lauber’s goals more to NU’s mistakes than to his performance.
“We gave the goals away,” Lenahan said. “I don’t think he necessarily did anything spectacular.
“We just made (Lauber) probably first-team All-Big Ten. We just made his season.”
NU freshman goalie Ryan Pederson allowed all five goals in the match. He played the whole game despite suffering from a nagging ankle injury.
After taking over for Adam Grossman, Pederson played in both overtimes in NU’s game against Northern Illinois on Sunday.
Grossman was taken out of that game — and remains inactive — because of wooziness after hitting his head against the goalpost while going for a save.
But no matter who is in goal, the NU defense has to improve, especially with Big Ten tournament rapidly approaching.
“The light bulb has to go on (and) the veins have to pop out of your neck,” Lenahan said. “We have to find a way to get the ball out of the box and reorganize. That’s what good teams do.”
In the conference tournament, the Cats will most likely have to open against Penn State, a team they have already been shut out by this season.
To have a chance of winning, the Cats will need to return to the stingy defense they played earlier this year.
“We’re going to have to go back to defending hard,” Lenahan said. “We’ve gotten away from that.”
But the most important part of that critical in-the-box defense is aggressiveness.
“We’re going to have to try to find the tough guy in us,” he said. “We’re leaking right now and we’re going to have to straighten that out.”
