Rutgers men's soccer suffers road loss against No. 12 Northwestern
The Rutgers men's soccer team faced off against Northwestern today in Evanston, Illinois. The Scarlet Knights (3-6-2, 1-3-1) were defeated by the Wildcats (9-0-3, 3-0-1) by a score of 2-0 in a poor offensive performance.
The game started very even, as both sides had a fair share of possession and tried to create scoring opportunities.
Rutgers would settle into the game and have scoring chances from junior midfielder Curt Calov, graduate student midfielder Jackson Temple and senior midfielder Jason Bouregy.
No. 12 Northwestern had its best chance of the first half right before halftime when Christopher Thaggard had a breakaway, but his shot was saved by sophomore goalkeeper Ciaran Dalton.
Going into halftime, the game would remain scoreless despite the Knights leading 10-7 in shots. Rutgers played strong defense, as the Wildcats only put 2 of their 7 shots on target.
Northwestern started the second half with more of the momentum.
In the 50th minute, Collin McCamy found space on the edge of the box and took a shot, but his attempt sailed over the crossbar and to the left.
As the second half dragged on, the tempo of the game slowed down, with both sides battling to dominate possession.
The Wildcats had a great scoring opportunity in the 66th minute, as Justin Weiss forced Dalton into a diving save.
Weiss had another chance approximately 8 minutes later, but freshman defender Nick Collins got in the way to block his shot.
In the 76th minute, graduate student defender Chris Tiao received a second yellow card, which resulted in a red card. The Knights were forced to play, approximately the final 14 minutes of the game, a man down.
Things would go from bad to worse for Rutgers, as Northwestern would score the first goal of the game in the 79th minute. Weiss played a pass to Ugo Achara Jr., who slotted the ball past Dalton and into the back of the net.
Jayvin Van Deventer sealed the win for the Wildcats with a goal in the 87th minute. Van Deventer dribbled out of a crowd, past senior defender Saahb Kular and shot the ball into the bottom left corner.
In the final 10 minutes, the Knights pushed to score a goal but were ultimately unsuccessful.
Despite conceding 2 goals, Dalton had another strong day between the posts, recording five saves.
Rutgers will look to get back into the win column when it returns to Yurcak Field on Busch campus to face off against Wisconsin on Friday. The game will begin at 6 p.m. and will be broadcast on the Big Ten Network and 88.7 WRSU-FM.
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