The Ohio State Buckeyes (2-6-2, 1-0) earned their second victory of the season by defeating the Badgers (5-6, 0-1) 1-0 Sunday afternoon. Dana York’s goal in the thirtieth minute was all the Buckeyes needed to open the Big Ten conference season with a shutout over UW.
The Badgers were without senior captain goalkeeper Eric Hanson, and senior captain defensive back Watson V. Prather for the second match in a row as both remain sidelined with injuries. A solid crowd of 699 brooked the cold and rainy day to watch the Big Ten opener at Madison’s McClimon Soccer Complex.
The game started at a quick pace as Ohio State’s first scoring opportunity came just four minutes into the game. OSU’s junior midfielder/forward, Sammy Tamporello, crossed the ball from the sideline into the goal box; while a Buckeye striker was right in front of the net, he was unable to connect on his volley attempt. After Tamporello made the cross he sustained an ankle injury that sidelined him for the remainder of the match.
UW had a scoring opportunity about six minutes later, but Phil Doeh was unable to get a foot on Jed Hohlbein’s cross.
“We just didn’t come to play in the first half,” UW head coach Jeff Rohrman said. “I don’t know why these guys can’t come to play every single game, but they have to start figuring it out.”
Ten minutes later OSU took a free kick after an Aaron Hohlbein foul that crossed the front of the goal, but no one was able to get a head on it for OSU.
The match’s only goal was scored at 30:15 when Dana York, an OSU sophomore defender, got hold of a loose bouncing ball around the top of the penalty box and put it in the back of the net as the Buckeyes went up on the Badgers 1-0.
The weather was less than ideal. As the game started, so did a light drizzle. By halftime there was substantial cold rainfall. There were patches of sunlight in the beginning of the second half, but more rain loomed as a steady wind brought temperatures well below 50 degrees.
“There’s too much talent on this team to not be able to put ourselves in the position to win games. For whatever reason we looked sluggish today,” Rohrman said. “We looked like the team that played Friday night; [Ohio State] had an overtime game on Friday and flew in Saturday. We just looked really sluggish, for whatever reason. Our guys have to figure that stuff out.”
Junior forward Jed Hohlbein agreed that the team did not come out the way they needed to.
“I don’t know what to tell you honestly. What can I say? We came out flat and just didn’t want to play for some reason and got beat,” he said. “We had chances, maybe not as many as we would have like, but we had a couple chances we could’ve put away but didn’t. We just struggled today.”
Wisconsin made a late run at the OSU net but was unable to score. They had a number of chances in the final minutes, but Ohio State’s defense played tough, just as they have all season.
The final numbers were just as close as the final score. UW had three corner kicks (all in the second half) against OSU’s four. UW also had eight shots (six in the second half), while OSU took 9 in the very physical game. Ohio State was called for 15 fouls and UW for 13. Wisconsin collected four yellow cards on the day.
The rain caused problems with footing for both the Badgers and Buckeyes. Some OSU players were changing their cleats as early as four minutes into the game to try and gain better traction. It was not uncommon to see players from both sides slipping and falling on the wet grass.
“It was pretty slick because the ground was pretty hard, then when it gets a little rain on top it’s hard to keep your footing sometimes,” Jed Hohlbein said.
UW will have to regroup and regain focus as they prepare for Wednesday’s battle against instate rival UW-Milwaukee (6-3, 1-0)
“Our guys just have to come out and play. They have to battle and want it and outwork the other team,” Rohrman said. “We have to sort that stuff out and just bring it on Wednesday. We know what UWM’s all about, so we just have to take care of business there.”
