Ohio State men’s soccer head coach Brian Maisonneuve watches the Buckeyes play in the first half of the game against the University of South Florida on Sept. 7, 2018. Credit: Casey Cascaldo | Photo Editor

The Ohio State men’s soccer team broke its three-game scoreless streak on Tuesday night and had the best overall offensive performance of the season on Tuesday. But an equalizer in the dying seconds led to overtime and a 1-1 draw between the Buckeyes and Bowling Green.

The Buckeyes got on the board midway through the second half on a night of relatively consistent offensive pressure, the likes of which eluded them in the early stages of this campaign.

An effective exchange between freshman midfielder Xavier Green and sophomore forward Joshua Jackson-Ketchup resulted in a Buckeye corner kick. Moments later, in the 72nd minute, Jackson-Ketchup took control of a rebound and ripped a shot into the top right corner off the assist from sophomore defender Jacob Goyen.

“It was either a corner kick or free kick on the side, and [I] just whipped it in, and you know, coach always tells us in practice, just be ready for the rebound,” Jackson-Ketchup said. “It came to me, it was set up perfectly, I was like this is my one and only once chance and we need a goal so I just kind of, you know, whacked it as hard as I possibly could, and it just happened to go upper 90.”

The goal was exactly what the team needed, and Jackson-Ketchup believes it will be huge for the Buckeyes moving forward.

“That’ll give us a huge boost of confidence because we’ve been, you know, in a drought,” Jackson-Ketchup said. “We’ve only got a real goal off a penalty, and that was like our only goal coming into this game,”

The lead held up until the final moments, aided by a strong defensive performance including a clutch save from redshirt junior goaltender Parker Siegfried in the 81st minute. Two minutes later, Goyen, who found himself on the goal line, stopped a tying goal opportunity.

But, with nine seconds remaining in regulation, Bowling Green sophomore midfielder Zach Buescher found the equalizer as he beat Siegfried to the top right corner, sending the match into overtime.

The first of two 10-minute overtime periods passed by without a goal, though both sides had quality looks, including Jackson-Ketchup, who nearly curled a ball into the far corner in the 99th minute. Much of the same took place in the second overtime period, though it was the Falcons who took clear command in the shots on goal category, as they found sustained pressure in their offensive half.

“I give the guys a lot of credit, a lot of times I told them a lot of times you lose those games in overtime because you’re deflated, and they found a way to keep the tie,” head coach Brian Maisonneuve said. “So definitely proud of them for that, in terms of dealing with that type of pressure.”

The opening half of play was rather uneventful from both sides. Siegfried, who made a season high six saves in the team’s previous match against South Florida, saw little work as he did not face a shot on goal from the Bowling Green attack in the opening 45 minutes of play.

On the other end, Bowling Green’s junior goaltender Anthony Mwembia was only forced to make one save, which came off the foot of Ohio State freshman midfielder Xavier Green inside of the last ten minutes of the opening half.

Siegfried had to wait until the 58th minute to record his first save, which he made comfortably.

The Buckeyes (1-4-1) will travel to Happy Valley to take on Penn State on Sunday at 1 pm.

Story was updated at 4:04 p.m. on Wednesday to correct date of game to Tuesday.