The final game of the Ohio State men’s soccer season was a familiar one for the team and its fans.
An inability to finish scoring chances has been a common theme throughout the 2003 season, and it reappeared in the post-season.
The Buckeyes outshot the Wisconsin Badgers 12-7, with a 9-5 advantage in the first half, yet they still lost 2-0 Nov. 13 in the first round of the Big Ten Tournament.
“In the first 15-20 minutes, we should have had a couple of goals,” OSU coach John Bluem said. “We played well, and we were clearly the better team than Wisconsin in the first half.”
Wisconsin forward David Martinez burned the Buckeyes with just 1:41 left before halftime by scoring off a deflection. Badger forward Nick Van Sicklen had the assist on the play and then added a goal of his own from eight yards out in the second half.
“We gave up two soft goals,” OSU defender David Ridenhour said. “You could tell in the locker room we were really down, and then we didn’t get it done in the second half.”
Seeded No. 4, OSU (4-12-4, 2-3-1 Big Ten) lost in the quarterfinals for the third year in a row. The fifth-seeded Badgers lost 1-0 to host, and eventual Big Ten Tournament champion Indiana, on a late goal in the semifinals.
By using a three-forward formation to help their unproductive offense, the Buckeyes were looking to defeat Wisconsin for the second time this season. OSU beat the Badgers at Wisconsin 1-0 in its Big Ten opener Sept. 28 with that same formation.
“It was really disappointing because we beat them pretty convincingly at their place,” said midfielder Adam Schauer, who led the Buckeyes with three shots in the Big Ten Tournament match. “I think some of the guys overlooked the game.”
OSU will be losing four senior defenders – Ridenhour, Sam Migliano, Matt McCune and A.J. Weber – that led the Buckeyes to a second place finish in goals allowed (1.33 goals per game) in the Big Ten. The seniors also helped OSU get to the 2000 and ’01 NCAA tournaments as well as the 2000 Big Ten Championship.
“Losing seniors is always a tough thing to overcome, but we have a lot of juniors that can take the load and have a pretty solid team.” Schauer said.
There is reason for optimism for the Buckeyes next season.
On offense, forward Justin Cook will be back after suffering a season-ending injury in May. He was the goal-scoring leader in 2001, and as was evident by the Buckeyes’ play this season, they lacked a legitimate goal scorer.
“Certainly, we’d like to say if we had Cook this year, that would have probably meant five or six games (won),” Bluem said. “Not only would he have scored some goals, but he makes players around him better and creates chances for other players. Opposing defenses did not have that difficult of a time with us.”
More help for the offense could be on the way in a forward from Akron who is expected to transfer to OSU if he’s academically cleared to play.
“We go from not having a goal scorer this season, to having two kids that may be the best strikers in the region,” Bluem said.
On defense, Bluem said he is confident in his defensive players coming back.
“We have to rebuild the defense, obviously, but I think we will be as good if not better next year,” he said.
Even though coaches hate to make excuses for their losing season, the Buckeyes are an exception. Besides OSU’s offensive woes, which had seven one-goal losses, its schedule was also horrendous. A total of 14 Buckeye opponents were in the national polls at some point this season. Seven of those teams will be playing in the NCAA tournament Dec. 12 and 14 in Crew Stadium.
“If you take six of the games that would have gone the opposite way, and ended up with a record of 10-6-4, we would be in the NCAA tournament,” Bluem said. “In all those one-goal losses, we could have won any of those games if we had finished our chances and put the ball in the net. We, for the most part, out-played all of those teams.”
Despite the losing season, three Buckeyes were awarded Big Ten Conference accolades. Weber was named second team All-Big Ten. Freshman forward Taylor Korpieski has been named to the All-Freshman team, and Ridenhour was tapped to the All-Big Ten Tournament team.
