All year coach Tim Lenahan has stressed that soccer is merciless; games are often decided by just one or two plays. No. 13 Northwestern discovered that firsthand in the Big Ten Tournament, as it fell to No. 16 Michigan State 1-0.
After defeating Penn State in the opening round, the Wildcats (13-4-2) moved on to face the Spartans (13-5-1) in the semifinals. Entering Friday’s contest, the Spartans had not only won the regular season conference championship, but had gone seven games without suffering a defeat and five games without allowing a goal. Having lost to Michigan State less than two weeks ago, NU knew what it was up against.
“We were definitely looking for a physically played game,” junior goalkeeper Misha Rosenthal said.
The Cats came in ready to fight back.
Entering the second half the Cats had committed 10 of the game’s 15 fouls. But this aggressiveness haunted the Cats when they fouled Michigan State midfielder Ben Pirmann in the box and set up a penalty kick for Big Ten Player of the Year Doug DeMartin six minutes into the second half.
“With a penalty kick, all the pressure is really on the shooter,” Rosenthal said. “But … most times they’re going to score.”
The nation’s leading scorer did exactly that and the Cats found themselves in a familiar position. The team was staring down elimination with less than a half of a match to play, just as it had in the first round.
“We obviously didn’t want them to score again,” junior defender Mark Blades said. “But we knew that we were going to have to put a little more effort into the offensive end and throw more guys forward. And kind of just give them everything we’ve got because it’s a tournament game.”
NU began sending more players forward to force the action on the offensive end. Senior midfielder Carl Pett had the Cats’ best chance to score when he blasted the ball from 25 yards out past the Michigan State goalkeeper with about five minutes remaining in the game. Unfortunately for NU, Michigan State defender Josh Rogers dove across the goal and headed the ball out just before it crossed the line.
That chance was the last good one for NU. Unlike against the Nittany Lions, the Cats could not put together a comeback and were handed a 1-0 defeat and an early exit from the Big Ten Tournament. The game was especially disappointing for some because of the nature in which NU lost it.
“You never like to lose on one penalty kick, on just one decision like that,” Rosenthal said. “The first time (the teams met) it was a rebound and they had a shot. Now it was just one play that can change a game, so that’s how soccer is.”
Despite their frustration the Cats gave nothing but praise to a hot Michigan State squad that went on to defeat Indiana and win the tournament.
“Hats off to them,” Lenahan said. “They beat us and they beat Indiana twice this year … They played for their coach, in his last year of 32 years, when he is about to retire and all that stuff. So hats off to them, they made a play and they kept us from scoring on the other end, and that’s what this game comes down to.”
NU will face Loyola Chicago on Friday at Lakeside Field in the first round of the NCAA tournament.
