Behind junior midfielder Jacob Brindle’s hat trick, the University of Wisconsin men’s soccer team (2-2-0 Big Ten, 11-3-2 overall) defeated the Eastern Illinois Panthers (1-3-1 Summit, 1-12-2) Wednesday night.
The 5-1 win extended the Badgers’ nation best home-unbeaten streak to 12 consecutive games, improving to 8-0-0 at the McClimon Soccer complex this year.
The three goals gave Brindle the team lead with eight, passing senior forward Nick Janus, who has seven.
After four unsuccessful corner kicks, the Badgers got the scoring started in the 28th minute on freshman midfielder/forward Brian Hail’s first goal of the season. After receiving a pass from senior forward Chris Prince, Hail took a shot from just inside the 18-yard box that beat the goalie in the upper corner.
The next Badger goal came less than 90 seconds later, on Brindle’s first of the night off a lead pass from senior defender Paul Yonga.
“Brindle’s a great role player for us. Whether he’s starting or coming off the bench, he gives us a different dynamic out there,” Yonga said.
Eastern Illinois pulled within a goal in the 34th midfielder Eric McCausland beat the Badger keeper, but Wisconsin rebounded quickly again, and regained the two-goal lead less than a minute later, with freshman forward Nick Jones beating the goalie to the far post.
“Nick has a goal from earlier in the year, but it was a beautiful play between he and Zadro on his goal,” head coach John Trask said.
The Badgers took a 3-1 lead into the halftime break, but added to their lead just 24 seconds into the second half on Brindle’s second goal.
Brindle completed the hat trick less than five minutes later, adding his third goal in the 50th minute to bring the tally to 5-1 in favor of the Badgers.
“Obviously it’s a great feeling,” Brindle said. “I’ll give all my credit to my teammates. I just got open in the box and they were able to find me.”
The Badgers controlled the pace all night, gaining seven corner kicks to the Panthers’ one and outshooting the Panthers 18-5, with seven coming on net.
“We had [seven] shots on goal, and five of them were in the back of the net. That’s the type of quality you want around your goal,” Trask said. “You can’t just shoot it somewhere near the goal at this level, the goalkeepers are too good.”
Adding two more to the big lead just after halftime allowed the Badgers and Trask to cycle in more players, and many of the younger players got involved.
“Probably the thing I’m proudest about … we played possession soccer, we were focused, we were disciplined and that was from the starters, to every single young guy who got on the field,” Trask said. “It never changed, if you noticed that, between our starters and our reserves.”
Senior goalkeeper Max Jentsch started for the third game in a row, allowing just one goal before being taken out with many of the other starters, and has given up only two in his three starts.
The Badgers have just two games remaining on their regular season schedule, both
in Big Ten conference play. They return to action Sunday at Northwestern for a 2 p.m. kickoff.
