The Wisconsin men's soccer team (1-3-0 Big Ten, 7-8-0 overall) had a busy homecoming weekend. They played the Dartmouth Big Green (1-1-1 Ivy League, 3-6-1 overall) Friday night and the Michigan Wolverines (1-3-0 Big Ten, 5-6-1 overall) Sunday afternoon.
On a cold, windy Friday night with some slippery field conditions, the Badgers lost to Dartmouth 2-0. Wisconsin played a mostly unimpressive game against a Dartmouth squad that was coming off a tie with Ivy League opponent Yale. The Badgers only managed two shots on goal the entire game.
\I'm very disappointed,"" Badger Head Coach Jeff Rohrman said. ""We didn't come to play. I don't know why. Too many guys didn't show up today.""
Wisconsin kept it close for the first half. Badger junior goalkeeper Eric Hanson had two very nice diving saves in the half, but Wisconsin failed to capitalize on six corner kicks in the half and the score was 0-0 at halftime.
Dartmouth came out energized in the second half and they finally broke open the scoring when junior forward Rob Daly scored an unassisted goal in the 57th minute of the game. Dartmouth added another goal seven minutes later to give themselves a 2-0 lead that lasted until the end of the game.
Wisconsin looked much better in Sunday's game against Michigan, only to end up losing a 3-2 heartbreaker to the Wolverines. The Badgers were without sophomore defenseman Joe Anderson, who had to sit the game due to a yellow card he earned in Friday's game.
""Joe's the best defender we have on our team,"" freshman forward Pat Cronan said. ""I know he could have prevented some of the stuff that was going on in the back today, so it would have helped a ton to have him today.""
The scoring started in the first half when Michigan sophomore midfielder Knox Cameron put the Wolverines up 1-0 for a lead that held until halftime. The Badgers had a lot of chances to score in the Michigan end of the field but came up empty.
After Michigan added another goal, the Badgers turned to the bench for a spark. They got the spark from Pat Cronan. Cronan scored the first Wisconsin goal of the weekend off a nice pass from sophomore defenseman Ryan Nord. Six minutes later, Cronan kicked a cross to senior forward Valentine Anozie who scored to tie the game 2-2.
""I was really energized,"" Cronan said. ""Michigan is a big rival of Wisconsin's, so I just came in and knew I had to play hard.""
The Wolverines would not be denied a win Sunday, though, as they exploited Wisconsin's weakened defense in the 83rd minute, when Michigan sophomore forward Jeff Mirmelstein scored a goal to put the Wolverines up 3-2. Wisconsin was never able to recover.
""I thought we did everything we'd asked the guys to do,"" Rohrman said. ""We showed a lot of character, a lot of gut, a lot of heart. We came back and nearly pulled it out.\
