Down 1-0 to Penn State with less than five minutes to play and a disappointing first-round exit from the Big Ten tournament in sight, things were not looking good for No. 13 Northwestern.
“We were thinking ‘Oh boy here we go again,'” said coach Tim Lenahan referring to the team’s three-game conference losing streak. “We were just going to be determined to throw everything we had at them. And if they were able to hold us off, they were going to hold us off. We weren’t going to lose we were just going to run out of time if we didn’t score the goal.”
But just as he had done for most of the regular season, sophomore forward Matt Eliason bailed the team out with his team-leading 12th goal of the season with 4:40 remaining on the clock. The goal ended a five-game scoring drought that lasted a month.
Freshman forward Oliver Kupe, who was out for most of the season with a hamstring injury, set up the goal with a terrific pass into open field near Eliason. Kupe was able to track the ball down at the end line, keep possession and strike a perfect ball to the Wildcats’ leading scorer for the equalizer. Once NU (13-3-2) had tied the game, the team was confident it would get the second goal to secure the victory.
“After we scored the goal, we had all the momentum,” Eliason said. “We definitely thought we were going to win, and there was no way we were going to let Penn State get another opportunity.”
NU’s opportunity came in the second overtime. After going against the wind in the first overtime, the Cats had the wind on their backs and created pressure in the box.
After a flurry of shots, Eliason took a shot that ricocheted off a defender, over the goalie’s head and hit the crossbar. The ball bounced back in play, and junior midfielder Carl Pett got a head on it and sent it into the back of the net with less than seven minutes to play in the game.
“It was really a team effort,” Pett said. “It showed that we just really wanted it more. We wanted to get the win.”
Earlier in the game, the outlook was not as good.
After an evenly played first half, the Nittany Lions’ (5-11-3) Jacobo Vera lit the scoreboard less than seven minutes into the second half. Suddenly the Cats were facing early elimination and needed some coach creativity to come back. Lenahan began substituting extra forwards into the game to get the game-tying goal.
“We just wanted to do anything to tie the game before the end of regulation,” Eliason said. “We wanted to do anything we could to try and put some pressure on the goalie and get as many chances as we could.”
NU would create several good chances before finally getting the game-tying and game-winning goals.
The Cats also got a lift from junior goalkeeper Misha Rosenthal, whom Lenahan said was doubtful for the tournament. Rosenthal injured his knee during the Michigan State game Nov. 2. He was forced to stay sidelined during the NU’s loss to Indiana in its final regular season game.
Still not 100 percent, Rosenthal played well in net, making three saves to help lock up the win.
“It’s a big psychological lift,” Lenahan said. “Misha Rosenthal came back, and I kind of likened his performance to Willis Reed’s in the 1970 NBA Championship.”
NU now moves on to face Michigan State in the tournament semi-finals Friday. The Spartans defeated the Cats two weekends ago but the players feel that the momentum from this victory will be important entering the next matchup. Still, Lenahan knows that this win was a fortunate one and that NU needs to prepare to play even better if the team is to advance to the conference championship game Sunday.
“Soccer is an unforgiving game,” Lenahan said. “It comes down to one or two plays usually, and we were fortunate enough to be on the right side of those plays today.”
