The Wisconsin Badgers (9-8-0, 1-3-0), who desperately wanted a win before heading into the season’s final stretch, were able to beat the DePaul Blue Demons (7-8-0, 3-2-0) by a score of 2-1 on yet another chilly night at McClimon Soccer Complex. Jed Hohlbein headed in UW’s two goals.
Wisconsin started out fast on the attack. They had a free kick outside the box just 90 seconds into the match. Aaron Hohlbein blasted the shot, but DePaul goalkeeper Jeff Klitzke, a former Badger, punched the ball over the goal.
DePaul had a scoring chance 20 minutes in when a cross came into the box, but the Blue Demon forward’s header went slightly wide right.
UW’s first goal was started by Phil Doeh. He got a pass and proceeded to turn and go around two DePaul defenders. He was fouled, setting up Aaron Witchger’s free kick, and the match’s first goal.
“Aaronn Witchger played a great ball in, I just beat my man to the near post and got a piece of it with my head and the goalkeeper was coming out so I made it over his head and into the net,” Jed Hohlbein said about his first of two goals on the night.
Just after UW scored at 25:48, DePaul evened the score at 26:46.
Badger defender Aaron Hohlbein fell down, leaving the DePaul forward open to receive the incoming pass with a breakaway opportunity. Goalie Eric Hanson came out to try and cut off the angle, but Edwin Arreola chipped the ball in to make it a 1-1 match.
The Blue Demons had a similar chance with 13 minutes to go in the half, but the DePaul forward chipped the ball extremely high and extremely over the goal.
Seven minutes after halftime at 52:27 Jed Hohlbein scored the game-winning goal from just inside the box.
“That was kind of similar to the first one, but once again, I just beat my man to ball,” Hohlbein said. “I didn’t exactly get a great header on it, but it ended up going in, so I was pretty fortunate on that one.”
The Badgers gained the victory, but their first-half play was uncharacteristic.
“I thought we played a very sluggish fist half; I think that was pretty evident,” UW head coach Jeff Rohrman said. “Just our movement wasn’t as crisp and sharp as it needed to be, our concentration wasn’t as good as it needs to be, and as a result, we just weren’t putting many things together.”
“We came out kind of flat-footed, didn’t play so great in the first half,” Hohlbein said.
The second-half play for Wisconsin was much improved.
“The second half was much better; we were much more connected in the back and through the midfield, at least for sure defensively in the second half, so as a result I don’t think [DePaul] generated too much in terms of quality chances,” Rohrman said.
Junior Noah Goerlitz noticed the importance of playing through the midfield.
“I thought for the most part we were the most successful when we were playing through the midfield,” Goerlitz said. “There were times when we got away from that; I think that’s when we were put under pressure and started to have to chase on defense.”
“I thought the second half we came around a little bit more, got quite a few more chances,” Jed Hohlbein said. “Couldn’t put as many of them away as we would have liked, but we ended up coming away with the win, so that’s all that’s important.”
“I thought in the second half we came out with a little more urgency and improved in some of those areas, and as a result, we looked liked a far different team in the second half than we did in the first half. I was pleased to see that, but we had that same thing happen on Sunday against Michigan. So we have to, as I told the guys, we have to remember you got to play 90 minutes against every team in college soccer. Anyone can beat anyone on any given day.”
“These Wednesday games are killing us. We were sluggish, [but] we got two good goals, so it’s a W. It’s not pretty, but it’s still a win,” goalie Eric Hanson said.