EAST LANSING, Mich. – Michigan State men’s soccer collected its second-straight win with a 1-0 shutout victory over Northwestern Tuesday night at a chilly DeMartin Stadium.
The Spartans have now earned two-straight clean sheets and four for the season. With the victory, the Spartans even their record to 4-4-2 this season and 3-1-0 in B1G play, while Northwestern falls to 5-5-0 this season and 0-4-0 in league play.
“I might have to give Oakland University a lot of credit for beating us 3-0 prior to the conference. I turned to my administrator Julee Burgess and said ‘maybe that was the best thing that’s happened to us’,” MSU head coach Damon Rensing said. “It really kind of put a fire under us, and we’ve been defending well. We’ve got re-organized in the back and put an emphasis on it. The good thing is we’ve been getting shutouts, but we’re also creating a ton of chances. At some point we’re going to have to score more than one goal, but we’ll take 1-0 victories any time.”
In the first half, the chances were equal in both directions. In the 22nd minute, MSU had one of its most dangerous chances of the period. Senior midfielder Shion Soga’s blast eluded Northwestern goalkeeper Rafael Ponce De Leon, but Bryant Mayer came to the rescue with the back save to keep the game scoreless.
The half ended 0-0 with both team recording three shots.
The Spartans finally broke throw in the 63rd minute. Junior forward Jake Spadafora started the play up the right side, finding Guggemos and beating Ponce De Leon. It was his first goal of the season, as well as the first assist of the year for Spadafora.
The reigning Big Ten Goalkeeper of the Week, redshirt-junior goalkeeper Zac Kelly had another fantastic came, tying his season-high with four saves.
“Back to back clean sheets- it’s huge,” Kelly said. “I mean you can’t lose a game if you’re not giving up goals and for us, it gives us that chance to win and a good opportunity. We put the ball in the back of the net, you’re not giving up the goal, you win. It’s a pretty easy recipe for success.”
Michigan State ended the game out-shooting Northwestern 11-8. NU had the advantage in corner kicks, 4-2.
“There’s no place like DeMartin. It was a perfect fall night,” Rensing said. “Our grounds people are amazing, I mean this field is in perfect shape, with a little dew the ball was just moving perfectly. You could just tell that the guys were excited to play at home. I appreciate…
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