Michigan State men fall to Northwestern

EVANSTON, Ill. - Northwestern’s Matt Eliason scored an early goal and the No. 17 Wildcats held on to defeat the Michigan State men’s soccer team, 1-0, on Saturday (Nov. 7) evening in Evanston, Ill. MSU ends its regular season 10-6-2 overall and 2-4 in the Big Ten. Northwestern is now 10-3-4 and 3-2-1 in conference play.

“We gave up the early goal and Northwestern came to play early on,” said MSU head coach Damon Rensing. “We didn’t account for a few things early and they are a very tough team to try and play catch up against.”

Eliason scored at the 5:09 mark off a through ball from Kevin Valenta.

Jeremy Clark made his second consecutive start in goal for the Green and White and made four saves.

“Playing at Northwestern is tough and they are a good, well organized team,” Rensing said. “We responded well and really went at them in the second half.”

The Spartans outshot the Wildcats, 6-5, in the second half and took five corner kicks in the frame but were unable to get the equalizer. Michigan State will get its shot at redemption on Thursday (Nov. 12) when the two schools meet again in the quarterfinals of the Big Ten Championship in Bloomington, Ind. The match is set for 3 p.m. ET.