Leading 1-0 in the dying minutes of Sunday’s game against Princeton, No. 9 Northwestern caught a break. Tigers forward Brandon Busch sent a shot past junior goalkeeper Misha Rosenthal. But the ball went wide of the open net, preserving the Wildcats’ slim lead.
With the help of timely defense, Rosenthal’s goaltending and that little bit of luck, NU withstood Princeton’s late rally.
The Tigers (1-3-0) did not go down without a fight in the Cats’ win at Lakeside Field on Sunday. Trailing by a goal late in the second half, Princeton began to control play and create scoring chances in bunches, making NU (7-0-1) sweat to the finish.
“We had a bend but not break mentality, which I don’t always like,” NU coach Tim Lenahan said. “But we found a way to keep them off the board although they got very close there at the end.”
The defense faced down the Tigers’ best offensive attack and survived without allowing the game-tying goal.
Less than halfway through the regular season schedule, Rosenthal is already setting records. The 1-0 win was Rosenthal’s 17th career shutout, an NU record. It was also his record-tying seventh shutout of the year. All this before the Cats kick off the conference schedule.
“We have real good chemistry back there,” junior defender Mark Blades said of the defense. “And Misha helps us out a lot – I feel really comfortable with him back there, so just working well together and trusting Misha helps the defense a lot.”
Northwestern took the lead in the 59th minute when senior midfielder Tyler Voigt played a ball in the box to sophomore forward Matt Eliason. Eliason recovered the loose ball and quickly beat Princeton goalkeeper Sean Lynch.
“I was just kind of bouncing around the box,” Eliason said. “I just wanted to take a quick reaction shot and catch the goalie off-guard and fortunately it worked.”
The goal was Eliason’s Big Ten leading seventh of the season and leaves him one goal shy of the top spot in the country.
NU’s game-winning goal came minutes after Princeton missed on another good opportunity. Tigers midfielder Brad Fechter fired a shot that beat Rosenthal but rang off the crossbar.
Though the Wildcats continued to apply offensive pressure after they scored the game’s only goal, they soon began to sit back on defense after clearing the ball, rather than advance the attack.
“It’s not lack of aggressiveness, you’re sitting back, you’re tired, and we just played a really physical, tough game 36 hours ago,” said Lenahan. “You want to be more aggressive, but there are limits to the body as well.”
Still the defense completed the shutout and has allowed only one goal in eight games. With a tough schedule ahead, the offense will have to step up and score more goals.
“We’ve got to start playing better combinations in the middle of the field,” Eliason said. “But it’s great that our defense is putting up zeros, so until then hopefully we’ll just keep getting better on offense.”
