Penn State Men’s Soccer Battles To A Draw Against No. 13 Ohio State
Penn State worked its way back into the point column on Friday with a 1-1 tie against No. 13 Ohio State.
Following a feel-out process for almost the entire first half, the Nittany Lions were the first team to find the scoreboard with Liam Butts breaking through to give the blue and white a lead.
Butts is now tied for the team lead with seven goals and has four in his last three games.
The Nittany Lions came out of the gates slow to start the second half and the Buckeyes capitalized as Tanner Creech chose the right time to score his first goal of the season to tie things up at one.
That would be the last goal of the match with the remainder of the game being filled with penalties.
Combined, there were five penalties in the match which all came following the Ohio State goal.
Three of those penalties were awarded to the Nittany Lions and Matthew Henderson would eventually get red-carded out of the match.
While it’s tough for the blue and white to only come away with one out of a possible three points from the match, head coach Jeff Cook is not fazed.
“I’m not disheartened because this squad has been stretched thin by some injuries and player unavailability and I think they responded really well,” Cook said. “There were some moments where we could’ve gotten to 2-1.”
The Nittany Lions won’t have much time to rest before their next match against Rutgers on Tuesday with the Big Ten tournament on the horizon.
With a majority of the season having already been played, Cook mentioned that the Nittany Lions have been at their best when controlling possession and that includes in Friday’s tie.
“I think our best moments come when we are good in possession, there were spells in the second half where we had possession down in Ohio State’s end and we were able to circulate the ball from one side to the other, we can drag the opposition around and we can feed our guys in front.”
The Nittany Lions have just two games remaining before the start of the Big Ten tournament and remain six points behind conference leader Maryland in the standings.
Logan Bourandas is a senior majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact him, email lxb5412@psu.edu.
