When the Northwestern men’s soccer team took on Ohio State last month, they were fortunate to come away with a 1-0 victory off of a 50-yard free kick goal.
No such luck was necessary this time around.
The Wildcats came out firing on Wednesday and struck early with two goals in the first 11 minutes, and they were able to hold on and secure a 2-0 victory over the Buckeyes in the first round of the Big Ten Tournament at Lakeside Field. The win puts them into the semifinal round against Michigan, who defeated Wisconsin in the game beforehand.
Right from kickoff, the game was wide open. Both teams were determined to gain an early lead, and they were attacking back and forth. Because of this aggressive mindset, they were each susceptible to dangerous counterattacks, but only the Wildcats were able to take advantage.
Just five minutes in, freshman midfielder Cole Missimo found a wide open lane and began to streak down the sideline and was tripped up a few yards outside the corner of the box, earning a free kick. Sophomore defender Grant Wilson stepped up a sent in a low cross, and senior midfielder Kyle Schickel was able to break free of his defender, put out his foot, and redirect it into the bottom right corner past OSU’s Alex Wimmer.
The ‘Cats continued to attack the Buckeye defense, and it paid off in the 11th minute. Ohio State defender Chris Gomez sent a slow pass across the middle of the pitch, and Schickel intercepted it with a lot of space in front of him. He connected on a through ball to freshman forward Joey Calistri, who coolly slid it past Wimmer for his team-leading eighth goal of the season.
Schickel’s made his impact felt with a goal and an assist after not recording a point since September 14th.
“That’s what we needed to advance,” he said afterward. “They made a couple mistakes and we capitalized on them. We knew we needed to do that early in the game to make sure we set the tone, and we didn’t want a team like Ohio State to linger around because they have some dangerous players up top.”
The game was still wide open, but the back lines did a solid job, and neither keeper was forced into a save until late in the half, when sophomore forward Eric Weberman struck a low line drive from the top of the box, with Wimmer making the diving stop.
The second half was more back-and-forth action, with neither side able to maintain possession and wear down the other until late in the match. When it did happen, it was Ohio State, who finally found a sense of urgency with just over ten minutes to go. It was too little, too late, and the Wildcats were able to hold off their last-gasp barrage.
With the shutout, goalkeeper Tyler Miller moves past George Kokodynski into sole possession of second place on Northwestern’s list of career shutouts. He now has 17 in just his sophomore season. However, he was not forced into too many dangerous situations, mainly because the Wildcat defense continues to become more and more solid.
“Defensively, I think we’ve gotten better as the season’s gone on,” Wilson said. “We’ve started to get more shutouts and started to work together not just as a back four, but as an entire team defensively.”
Even with a 2-0, seemingly comfortable victory, head coach Tim Lenahan was not satisfied with his team’s attacking performance, and he feels the margin of victory should have been even higher.
“I would’ve liked to have been a little more efficient on the counterattack," he said. "We were very efficient on the goal that Joey scored, but I thought there were a couple of other times where we could’ve been more efficient. We made that game a little harder than it could’ve been.”
Whether or not they played as well as they could have, the ‘Cats got the victory, and they will try for another at Lakeside Field at 2:30 on Friday against the Wolverines.