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 Heading into the final 30 seconds of the second overtime Saturday afternoon, the University of Wisconsin men's soccer team continued to attack.
And it paid off in grand fashion for the Badgers.
Penn State was called for a handball in the box with 21 seconds left and junior Tomislav Zadro converted the ensuing penalty kick to give UW a 1-0 victory in State College, Penn., finishing off an impressive regular season for the Badgers.
UW (9-7-2 overall) tied Ohio State for second place in the Big Ten Conference with a 4-2-0 record, behind champion Northwestern (4-0-2). It was the Badgers' best finish since 2006 and the most conference wins for the program since 1995.
"To finish the regular season in the Big Ten 4-2-0 is quite an accomplishment," UW coach John Trask said in a news release.
The decisive sequence in the 110th minute saw Badgers sophomore midfielder Ryan Buda (Stevens Point) play a ball that was handled by a Nittany Lions player. Zadro stepped to the spot and beat Penn State freshman goalkeeper Andrew Wolverton to the left side for his team-best sixth goal of the season.
Zadro also leads the team with seven assists, meaning he's played a role in 13 of the Badgers' 23 goals.
UW sophomore Max Jentsch (Hartland Arrowhead) and Wolverton did well to keep the match scoreless into the final minute.
Jentsch finished with eight saves in his fourth shutout of the year, including a stop on a diving header by junior Minh Vu in the 66th. Wolverton, meanwhile, thwarted several good opportunities for the Badgers – most notably a header by sophomore Nick Janus in the ninth and a blast by senior Josh Thiermann (Stoughton) off a corner kick by Zadro in the 96th. Janus also had a shot clang off the post in the 61st.
UW is the No. 3 seed for the Big Ten tournament – Ohio State claimed the second seed based on its 2-0 win over the Badgers last Sunday – and will play No. 6 seed and host Michigan (5-13-1) in the quarterfinals at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday in Ann Arbor, Mich. UW beat the Wolverines 2-1 on Oct. 9 despite being outshot 23-6.
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