On Senior Day with an NCAA tournament bid on the line, Northwestern coach Tim Lenahan told his team to play like it had nothing to lose.
The Wildcats didn’t take a conservative approach to Sunday’s game against Wisconsin.
So with the game tied 1-1 to start the second half, the Cats went on the offensive, trying to get the game-winning goal in its final regular season match.
NU had its chances, but the offensive push backfired.
With less than a minute left in the game, Wisconsin countered with a two-on-one breakaway and freshman forward Victor Diaz beat NU goalkeeper Will Briley with 45 seconds remaining to give the Badgers a 2-1 win.
With the loss, the Cats (9-6-2, 1-4-1) fall to last place in the Big Ten, as the Badgers (8-10-0, 2-4-0) eclipsed them in the standings to take sixth.
“Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, sometimes you draw,” Lenahan said. “But the one thing I’ll tell you is that we weren’t going to draw today. We were going to win this game or lose this game. But we weren’t leaving this field on this day with a tie.”
In the first half of Sunday’s game, NU appeared to be in control. After the opening 10 minutes, the Cats settled down and asserted themselves on offense.
NU took advantage of its size in the air, using set pieces to generate offensive chances. Wisconsin goalkeeper Jake Settle made five saves in the first half, all off of NU headers.
In the 39th minute, the Cats got one past Settle. The Badgers’ goalie saved junior forward Brad North’s header, but senior defender Adam Sirois was there for the rebound.
The goal was Sirois’ second of the season, and North and junior midfielder Gerardo Alvarez picked up the assists.
“I was scrapping around in the box, trying to get free in case there was rebound,” Sirois said. “We got a good head on it. I was wide open and just knocked it in.”
But less than four minutes later, Wisconsin responded.
Sophomore midfielder Nick Caronna beat Briley to the left to tie the game at 1-1 with less than two minutes left in the half.
“I thought that goal at the end of the first half was a little bit soft,” Lenahan said. “I thought we got a little bit casual there.”
In the second half, both teams had chances on the offensive end, but the defenses held strong and used a little bit of luck.
In the 75th minute, a Wisconsin shot hit the far post, and in the 80th minute, a header from NU senior midfielder Kevin Earnest beat the keeper but a Badgers’ defender cleared it off the line.
Although the loss hurt NU’s NCAA tournament chances, the Cats are not out of it.
Last season, Michigan had an identical Big Ten finish as this year’s Cats, taking seventh place in the conference with a 1-4-1 Big Ten record. The Wolverines, then 9-6-4, went 1-1 in the Big Ten tournament and captured an at-large bid to the national championships.
With the seventh seed in the conference tournament, the Cats play second-seeded Ohio State on Thursday. The Buckeyes beat NU 2-1 on Oct. 28 in Columbus, Ohio.
This year, NU has the advantage of hosting the Big Ten tournament. Before Sunday, the Cats were undefeated at home.
“We want to go out with wins on our home field,” senior defender Brad Napper said. “Hopefully we’ll put this loss behind us and bring everything at Ohio State on Thursday.”
Reach Scott Duncan at [email protected].
