The Ohio State men’s soccer team gathers up prior to the start of the game against BGSU. Credit: Jack Westerheide | Photo Editor
The Ohio State men’s soccer team (8-9-1, 3-5-0 Big Ten) stunned No. 8 Michigan State (11-3-3, 5-0-3 Big Ten) in the first round of the Big Ten Tournament, beating the Spartans 2-1 at DeMartin Stadium in East Lansing, Michigan, on Sunday.
The Buckeyes were able to strike first in the eighth minute as junior forward Michael Prosuk took the feed from freshman forward Joshua Jackson-Ketchup and buried it in the back of the net.
The Buckeyes were not finished in the first half as junior midfielder Abdi Mohamed extended the Buckeyes lead to 2-0 in the 42nd minute with a strike from 23 yards out, closing out a strong first half for the underdog.
The Spartans came out strong in the second half as they cut the lead in half in the 50th minute when junior defender John Freitag scored from eight yards out.
The Spartans had one final opportunity to tie the game with 31 seconds remaining as junior forward Ryan Sierakowski took a free kick at the top of the box, but his shot hit the post allowing time to run out.
The Buckeyes played a bend, don’t break defense as they were outshot by the Spartans 20 to five, and the Spartans had 16 corners compared to the Buckeyes’ two.
Sophomore goalkeeper Parker Siegfried helped the Buckeyes’ as he had five saves preventing the Spartans from scoring the equalizer, giving the Buckeyes the win.
The win snapped the Spartans’ 18-game home win streak and also gave the Spartans their first conference loss of the season. Ohio State ended its eight-game losing streak that began Oct. 1 against Michigan State.
The game began at 1 p.m., but due to lightning, play was suspended in the third minute for an hour and five minutes before both teams retook the field at 2:20 p.m.
The Buckeyes will play the winner of the No. 2 Indiana versus Penn State at 2:30 p.m. Friday in Westfield, Indiana.
