EAST LANSING – On a chilly fall Sunday afternoon, No. 19 Michigan State men’s soccer hosted the Maryland Terrapins at DeMartin Stadium, resulting in a 2-2 draw.
With the draw, MSU remains undefeated and moves to 6-0-6 on the season, tying a program record for most draws in a season.
Maryland moves to 3-6-3 on the season, and is still without a win in Big Ten play.
The Terrapins came out of the gate hot, with freshman forward Luke van Heukelum scoring just a minute and a half into the match. Only fifteen minutes later, Maryland notched its second goal of the game, this time from sophomore Max Riley. This was only the second time this season that the Spartans have gone into halftime trailing.
“I think we’re frustrated with how we started the game,” head coach Damon Rensing said. “Obviously spotting Maryland two goals is not how you want to start a game.”
Coming out of the second half; however, Michigan State played with a sense of aggressiveness that wasn’t there in the first half. With only six shots and one on target in the first half, Michigan State fired off nine shots, with three on target in the second half, an impressive offensive showing that the team desperately needed.
The Spartans cut the deficit to one, when senior midfielder Jack Zugay found sophomore forward Jake Spadafora for the goal in the 59th minute.
The Spartans second half domination also came with a slew of foul calls. A total of 18 fouls on Maryland, followed by 10 for Michigan State resulted in fouls playing a big part of the second half.
With the clock ticking down, Michigan State found a way to knot the match up at two in the 77th minute, thanks to a picture-perfect header from Jonathan Stout off an immaculate cross from Jeremy Sharp.
Stout heads it home off the nice cross from Sharp to tie it up at 2-all and set of the Green Smoke celebration from the @RedCedarRowdies!!#GoGreen pic.twitter.com/lkRO68z2XC
— MSU Men's Soccer (@MSU_MSoccer) October 15, 2023
The Spartans still had hope in the last 13 minutes of play. With the DeMartin Field crowd getting loud for their soccer team, MSU had two more shots in the game, both coming up just short and finalizing the 2-2 draw.
The Sunday afternoon match was Alumni Appreciation day, and Damon Rensing credited the alumni for having his team’s back in the comeback effort.
“With all of our alums here, they were great coming by the bench and rooting our guys on at halftime,” Rensing said. “I would give our alums an assist today. They pushed our guys forward in the second half.”
Even though it was a tough start for the Spartan soccer team, Rensing gave his team all the credit for the spirit they showed coming down the stretch.
“You’ve got to give our guys a lot of credit. The spirit and fight that they showed in the second half was great and incredible,” Rensing said.
The Michigan State men’s soccer team takes the pitch on Friday, Oct. 20 in Evanston, Illinois, when they take on Northwestern for their final road game of the regular season.
