Badger Rally Falls Short Against Wolverines
October 20, 2002 | Men's Soccer
The Wisconsin men's soccer team came back from a two-goal deficit to tie visiting Michigan late in the second period, but time ran out for the Badgers in the eventual 3-2 loss to the Wolverines Sunday afternoon at the McClimon Complex. True freshman Pat Cronan and senior co-captain Valentine Anozie scored a goal a piece to lead Wisconsin.
'I thought today we played with a lot of heart, a lot of character in battling back and it's unfortunate to not come away with the win, ' Wisconsin head coach Jeff Rohrman said. 'These are the ones that hurt the most. You compete and battle and put yourself in a position to win and you end up falling short.
'But, we have to remember that we are a good team. We 've played some very good soccer and we've had some bright moments this season. Now we have to keep our heads up and prepare for Michigan State next week. '
Michigan took an early 1-0 lead off of sophomore Knox Cameron 's goal in the seventh minute. UW's Anozie led Wisconsin in creating several scoring opportunities throughout the first period, but UM keeper Peter Dzubay continued to fend off the Badger attack and kept the Badgers at bay into the halftime break.
Michigan's Mike White furthered the Wolverine advantage with a goal at the 59th minute off an assist from teammate Mychal Turpin to lead off the second period.
Down by two goals and maintaining their attack on the UM goal, the Badgers ignited their offense off of Cronan's first career goal as a Badger in the 64th minute. Wisconsin sophomore Ryan Nord picked up a loose ball just outside of the goal box and played the ball along the endline to Cronan for the finish past Dzubay and a 2-1 game.
Cronan tallied his third point of the game on an assist to Anozie for the Badger's game-tying goal just six minutes later. Fellow freshman Phil Doeh sent the ball high from upfield and Cronan knocked the ball down off of a header to set up Anozie's shot and goal against Dzubay in the 70th minute.
Now 2-2, the game remained deadlocked until the 82nd minute when UW keeper Eric Hanson came out to stop a Michigan ball played by Turpin, but a cross to UM 's Jeff Mirmelstein found the back of the net to score the Wolverine's third and game-winning goal.
UW keeper Hanson pulled in six high-flying saves to help the Badgers, while Dzubay collected two saves for the Wolverines.
The Badgers, now 7-8-0 and 1-3 in the Big Ten travel to East Lansing, Mich., next Sunday, Oct. 27 to face Big Ten opponent Michigan State at noon. The Spartans, currently 9-5-0 and 3-2-0 in the Big Ten, defeated Penn State 1-0 Sunday, while Wisconsin leads the all-time series with the Spartans 16-4-3 overall in games dating back to 1978.
