Wisconsin men’s soccer tied 1-1 against Big Ten opponent Penn State on Sunday after a second-half goal by the Nittany Lions erased the Badgers lead and prevented them from a win in their final regular season game.
Wisconsin came into the game with a 6-4-5 record after a 2-1 win against in-state rivals UW-Milwaukee.
Sunday marked senior night, and Wisconsin started off strong in the first half. Badgers defender Birgir Baldvinsson booted a corner kick into the net to score in the 14th minute.
The rest of the first half was a defensive endeavor where both teams could not score. The Badgers had one more shot on goal than Penn State in the first half.
Penn State came into the second half strong and started to outpace Wisconsin, proving to be troublesome for Wisconsin goalkeeper Nate Crockford. Crockford had to defend against nine Penn State shots in the second half compared to the two shots the Badgers had in the first half.
Despite Penn State’s offensive onslaught, Crockford held his ground in the second half and saved five shots. Crockford had a total of six saves for the game — two of them came from back-to-back shots at the 59th and 60th minute.
Crockford and the Wisconsin defense came short of a shutout when the Penn State frontline put on a passing exhibition that led to a 67th minute goal by Penn State midfielder Van Danielson, assisted by forwards Peter Mangione and Samson Kpardeh.
Wisconsin remained scoreless in the second half despite good opportunities from forward Thomas Raimbault and defender Ryan Quintos, eventually seeing the game out to a 1-1 draw.
The Badgers moved to 6-4-6 on the season, an improvement on last year’s 6-6-4 regular season record, Wisconsin improved overall.
The Badgers start Big Ten tournament play in Bloomington on Nov. 3 against Indiana.
