Wetungu’s Late Goal Lifts MSU Past OSU

COLUMBUS, Ohio - With 19 seconds left in regulation, junior defender Michael Wetungu's header guides No. 8 Michigan State men's soccer past Ohio State, 2-1, at Jesse Owens Memorial Stadium.

The Spartans spoiled the Buckeyes' Senior Night with a pair of second-half goals. With the win, the Spartans improve to 10-2-2 overall and 4-1-0 in Big Ten play. MSU is now 5-0-1 on the road this season and 3-0-0 in road conference battles. Ohio State is now 1-10-2 and 0-4-1 in league contests.

"Winning a Big road game is always big, and this is our third in a row. Winning Big Ten road games means a lot. It might not have been exactly how we scripted it, but I thought at times we did a lot of great things. We just need to be a bit more potent in our attack. We had that at the beginning of the year, and we are starting to fade a little bit," MSU head coach Damon Rensing said.

How it happened:
For the sixth time this season, the Spartans went into the locker room scoreless,despite out-shooting OSU 7-1 in the first 45 minutes. Michigan State is now 4-1-1 when neither team scores in the first half.

The Spartans came out strong in the second half, looking to snap the scoreless tie. In the 54th minute, they did just that after a fantastic strike by junior midfielder Giuseppe Barone. The junior scored his third goal of the season, taking the pass from senior midfielder John Freitag and finishing on the left side. Barone is now tied for the lead in scoring with senior forward Ryan Sierakowski with 14 points.

In the 56th minute, both teams were forced to play a man down after red cards were called on MSU senior forward Hunter Baroneand OSU's Osman Fofanah.

Michigan State maintained possession for much of the second half. As time ticked away, the Ohio State offense became more aggressive. In the 88th minutes, Brady Blackwell delivered a well-placed ball to the foot of Devyn Etling to tie the score at 1-1.

Trying to avoid their fourth overtime game of the season, MSU used the remaining seconds left looking to find the back of the net. MSU took three shots in the final two minutes, scoring on the final shot. Wetungu took the rebound from his own shot to head the ball past OSU's Parker Siegfried for the game winner. The junior now has two goals in his last two games.

"It has been great to see Michael score a couple goals. He and Patrick (Nielsen) are starting to get more and more comfortable with each other. We are really happy with how Michael has been playing," Rensing said.

What's Next
The Spartans will have a breather, playing its penultimate regular-season home game against Northwestern on Friday, Oct. 19 at 7 p.m. Michigan State will honor its 10 seniors prior to the game.

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