The UW men's soccer team (1-4-0 Big Tehn, 6-10-0 overall), still in search of its first Big Ten win, took to the field against the visiting defending Big Ten Champion Michigan State (2-3-1, 6-5-5). The Badgers had lost eight of the last nine, before battling hard on a rainy day in which they pulled out the dramatic 3-2 victory in overtime.
Most of the first half went by before junior Hamid Afsari punched in a goal off of freshman Zack Lambo's corner kick at 30:39. The Spartans answered seven minutes later with a goal of their own by freshman Doug DeMartin, and the teams went into halftime deadlocked at one.
After a quick push by the Spartans, the Badgers seized control and kept the ball on the Michigan State side of the field for most of the second half. For the first part of the second half, the Spartans seemed to get better shots on goal, but the Badgers controlled the game and it seemed like only a matter of time before they found the net.
At 63:13, when sophomore Victor Diaz made a quick move near the goal and was fouled by a Michigan State defender, Diaz rifled the ensuing penalty kick into the left corner of the net to give the Badgers the go-ahead goal. It seemed as though that goal would be sufficient for the win, but with 26 minutes remaining, a lot of time was left for the Michigan State offense.
A penalty near the middle of the field set up a free kick for the Spartans. The ball was kicked 10 feet in front of the goal. After bouncing around for a few seconds, it squirted to the side and sophomore Rauwshan McKenzie tapped the ball into the net to tie it up with only 1:52 remaining.
The young Badger team, with no seniors on the roster, did not allow the late comeback to take a toll on their psyche.
'When you've given up a goal in the last couple of minutes in regulation, a lot of times you carry that over into overtime,' head coach Jeff Rohrman said. 'I was proud of our guys for not giving up.'
With just over two minutes remaining in the first overtime, sophomore Erik Ortega controlled the ball near the edge of the box and made a quick move to make his defender fall on the wet terrain. With the open look he fired a rocket towards the goal. The ball glanced off a Michigan State defender's leg and into the net for the game-winning goal.
'I thought about going inside, then I cut it back and saw an opening so I took a shot,' Ortega, whose team has been involved in a lot of close games, said about the goal. 'We've lost seven games decided by one goal, and we had the 2-1 lead here, and to lose it and go into overtime was kind of demoralizing, but we picked our heads up and kept fighting.'
