Men’s Soccer: Ohio State’s season comes to an end with 3-1 loss to Northwestern

Ohio State junior defender Osman Fofanah dribbles past Rutgers defenders during the second half of the Ohio State-Rutgers game on Sep. 30. Ohio State lost 3-2. Credit: Cody Mefferd | For the Lantern

The Ohio State men’s soccer team (1-15-2, 0-8-1 Big Ten) saw one of the toughest seasons in program history come to an end on Saturday afternoon at the hands of Northwestern (6-8-5, 1-5-3 Big Ten) in the No. 8-No. 9 seed matchup in the opening round of the Big Ten tournament.

The Buckeyes went ahead early in the 17th minute on a goal from redshirt junior forward Jake Scheper, his second goal of the season.

Scheper took a pass from junior defender Osman Fofanah and volleyed a lob shot past Northwestern’s sophomore goalkeeper Miha Miskovic.

It was all Northwestern from there on out.

The Wildcats found three goals from their midfield to seal the victory. Junior midfielder Sean Lynch, senior midfielder Camden Buescher and junior midfielder Matt Moderwell tallied the goals for Northwestern.

Buescher and Moderwell are the two leading scorers for the Wildcats, and they provided the punch that is expected from them, as they iced the game with goals in the 78th minute and 88th minute respectively.

Ohio State took the early lead not only on the scoreboard, but on the stat sheet. The Buckeyes outshot Northwestern 7-4 in the opening 45 minutes.

Five minutes after the Scheper goal, Northwestern found the equalizer when Lynch scored his first goal of the season to tie it at 1-1.

Despite the match being tied at the half, the opening 45 minutes seemed to put the Buckeyes in a good position to win just their second match of the season, allowing them to live and fight another day.

Saturday’s match turned out to be a tale of two halves. Northwestern found its footing and pulled away from the Buckeyes, outscoring Ohio State 2-0 in the second half and outshooting the Buckeyes 7-5.

Miskovic and Ohio State redshirt junior goalkeeper Parker Siegfried both made three saves on the afternoon.

Northwestern will advance to play No. 1 seed Indiana in the Big Ten quarterfinals.