DEKALB, Ill. — The Wisconsin men’s soccer team will rue their missed opportunities as they controlled play only to see host Northern Illinois come away with the 1-0 victory when Wisconsin native Curt Zastrow scored in the 86th minute. The disheartening loss drops the Badgers’ record to 3-5-0 as they head into Big Ten play.

“It’s frustrating, but we’re going to get turned around,” Wisconsin head coach Jeff Rohrman said. “There’s too much talent here and we have to look forward to the Big Ten starting this weekend and put this one behind us and go forward.”

The lone goal came late in the game with the Badgers on the attack, like they had been most of the second half. A long clearance from the NIU defense found Zastrow deep in the UW end. The freshman from North Freedom, Wis. got past a defender and goaltender Eric Hanson before shooting the ball into the net.

“They scored a pretty opportunistic goal,” Rohrman said. “It wasn’t anything I thought they created, you know, through great play, we kind of gave it to them and that’s disappointing.”

The Badgers came into the game hoping to generate a more consistent attack by pushing a midfielder forward into a striker’s position. The change in formation didn’t pay immediate dividends as Wisconsin struggled to maintain possession in the first half, but by the second half there were scoring chances aplenty.

“In the first half we weren’t playing through the midfield as much as I would have liked; near the end of the half we opened things up,” Rohrman said of his attack. “In the second half I thought we got the better of the possession, but we didn’t get the main statistic we were looking for.”

While Wisconsin controlled the ball for much of the second half, they often squandered chances as they neared the box. On more than one occasion, the Badgers either made one too many passes or fired the ball into a defender inside of the 18-yard box, failing to capitalize on a solid build-up. Their 17-9 advantage in fouls drawn showed just how much the Badgers controlled play, as they often forced the Huskies to reach on defense.

“I didn’t think that we were getting enough out of our forwards and in the attack,” Rohrman said. “I thought we did a little bit better today, but we didn’t in the final third. Whether it was the final pass, getting the shot off or putting the cross in the right spot, we didn’t execute in those areas.”

The Badgers got the most production from midfielder Aaron Witchger and defender Hamid Afsari. Witchger controlled play from the middle and recorded three shots, but only one was on goal. Afsari pushed up from his defensive position to get three quality scoring chances, although all three were saved by Husky goalkeeper Steve Goletz. Overall, Goletz was forced to make six saves compared to Hanson’s three.

Another factor in the Badgers’ offensive struggles was the absence of senior striker Jed Hohlbein. UW’s leading scorer through the first seven games of the season sprained his ankle against IUPUI and was not available for the game with NIU. A quality finisher, Hohlbein may have been the difference-maker the Badgers needed in the box.

“We missed him a little bit today,” Rohrman said.

The Badgers’ defense came into the game as the unit that had been playing fairly inconsistently throughout the early portion of the season, but gave a strong performance against the Midwest’s No. 7-ranked squad. Central defender Aaron Hohlbein and keeper Hanson each made crucial interventions to avert scoring chances for NIU. On the whole, the defense played well and was able to snuff out most of the Huskies’ offensive runs long before they became dangerous. However, there was still room for improvement.

“I thought [the defense] was okay,” Rohrman said. “I still think our service out of the back could get a little bit better, at times our 1-v-1 defending could be better, but there was a lot more communication, a lot more attention to where players were.”

The Badgers deserved better from a game in which they dominated the possession and quality scoring chances only to see the final results go against them. For a team that entered the season expecting to score some goals, this was a disappointing loss.

“We still have to finish things off,” said Rohrman of his team’s inability to get over the hump. “That’s the part that’s a little frustrating right now.”