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 There's no doubt about the progress the University of Wisconsin men's soccer team has made this season. But there's also plenty more to do for the Badgers to consistently compete with the nation's best programs.
Sunday afternoon was a good example of that.
UW outshot Ohio State 20-13 and put eight shots on frame, but couldn't find a goal and ended up dropping its second consecutive Big Ten Conference match, 2-0 to the Buckeyes in its regular-season home finale at the McClimon Complex.
Junior Chris Hegngi gave Ohio State (10-5-2 overall, 4-1-0 Big Ten) the lead on a 27th-minute penalty kick drawn by his older brother Parnell, and the elder sibling doubled the advantage by bending in a 25-yard free kick in the 70th as the Buckeyes moved into first place.
The Badgers (8-7-2, 3-2-0) dropped a spot to third heading into their conference finale next Saturday at Penn State (7-7-3, 0-5-0).
"We've not been able to go from a 1-0 down situation and turn the game around," UW coach John Trask said in a news release. "We've gotten back into a couple of games; a good college soccer program has to find a way to win after being down.
"We created some good chances. It could have easily gone 1-1 at some point. We created a number of chances when we were down 2-0. I don't fault the effort, but top programs find a way to score a goal and get back in the game at home."
UW rattled off 15 shots after halftime, but found it tough to get past Buckeyes junior goalkeeper Matt Lampson. He made five of his seven saves in the second half, and got some help from his defense when he needed it – UW senior Josh Thiermann (Stoughton) beat Lampson with a header in the 75th, but defender Chris Gomez cleared the ball off the line as Ohio State dealt the Badgers their third shutout loss in four matches.
"The defense withstood some very good attacks from Wisconsin in the second half," Buckeyes coach John Bluem said.
Sophomore keeper Max Jentsch (Hartland Arrowhead) finished with five saves for UW.
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