No. 10 Men's Soccer Downed by Oakland

Oct. 22, 2014

ROCHESTER, Mich. - The No. 10 Michigan State men's soccer team was defeated by Oakland on Wednesday evening, 2-0. The Spartans' four-game win streak was cut short by two late second half goals from Matt Rickard and Gavin Hoy. The Spartans fall to 9-3-2 on the season.

"It was a disappointing result," said head coach Damon Rensing. "I thought in the first half, we just weren't sharp. It wasn't from a lack of effort, I thought the guys came out and wanted it, but at the end of the day, you have to execute."

Junior goalkeeper Zach Bennett nabbed the key save of the half in the 10th minute off a shot from Ben Gerald of Oakland. Despite a couple of good chances, with the Spartans totaling four shots with one shot on goal, the first half remained scoreless at 0-0.

"At halftime, we re-grouped, and I thought we controlled the majority of the second half," said Rensing. "You have to reward yourself with goals. We didn't create enough chances. The chances we did create; we didn't execute well enough."

Ryan Keener and Michael Marcantognini saw strong chances in the second half at the 53rd and 67th minutes, respectively. Bennett had two saves in the 70th and 80th minutes, before Oakland scored twice in the last 10 minutes of the game.

In the 84th minute, Matt Rickard scored his third goal of the season to put the Grizzlies up 1-0 with an assist from Shawn Claud Lawson. Gavin Hoy tacked on his second goal of the season in the 89th minute, drawing the game to a 2-0 close.

"It was disappointing, but not from a lack of effort," Rensing said. "We are excited to turn around in a few days, play a good Northwestern team and focus on the Big Ten."

The Spartans return to Big Ten conference action on Sunday, Oct. 26 at 1 p.m. for a home match against Northwestern in DeMartin Stadium. The game will broadcast live on BTN Plus.

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Team Stats

Ryan Keener

Adam Montague

Michael Marcantognini

Dewey Lewis

Players Mentioned

Zach Bennett

Ryan Keener

Michael Marcantognini