The Wisconsin men's soccer team was shut out for the third straight match and fell to No. 16 Creighton (6-1-0) 1-0 in overtime at Morrison Stadium in Omaha, Neb. on Friday night.
Senior goalkeeper Ryan Vint did his best to staive off the Blue Jays' attack and made a career-high eight saves, but Creighton's 18 shots proved too much to handle. Overall, Creighton outshot Wisconsin 18 to 5, including a 10-1 advantage in shots on goal.
After 90 minutes of scoreless play, the Blue Jays broke through the stingy Wisconsin defense and capitalized on a failed clearance by the Badgers in the 96th minute.
Wisconsin looked as though they had safely cleared the ball from a Creighton corner kick, but the Blue Jays regained possession at the top of the 18-yard box. Creighton played another ball into the box, where Kris Clark flicked it to teammate Ethan Finlay. To the delight of the 2,862 fans in attendance, Finlay's low-flying shot deflected off a player in the six-yard box and into the goal.
With just three minutes to play, junior Austin Spohn posted Wisconsin's only shot on goal of the match. Creighton goalkeeper Brian Holt secured the ball for his lone save of the night, and recorded his fifth shutout of the season with the 1-0 win. Holt has a 0.71 goals against average through seven matches this season.
While Vint and the Wisconsin defense have given up only eight goals in seven games — good for a 1.14 goals-against average — the offense has been slow to take shots and score goals. The Badgers have been outshot in all seven matches this year and have not scored in over half of them. Only one player, senior midfielder Aaron Nichols, has tallied more than one goal on the year. If Wisconsin is to get a win, their offense must start clicking.
The Badgers will look to change their fortune when they face in-state rival Marquette (2-3-2) Tuesday in Milwaukee. The Golden Eagles opened their Big East season with a 1-0 victory over Rutgers and hope to avenge a 2-0 loss to Wisconsin in Madison last year
—uwbadgers.com contributed to this report.
