No. 8/12 Spartan Men’s Soccer Stopped By Rutgers Friday on Senior Night

Friday, October 30

East Lansing, Mich.

7 PM

Michigan State University

10-3-3, 5-2-2

Rutgers

8-6-2, 6-3-1

Team	1	2	Final F
Rutgers	2	2	4
Michigan St.	0	1	1

10/30/2026 11:27:00 PM | Men's Soccer

Box Score RU 4, MSU 1 MSU Statistics

MSU’s Senior Night spoiled by RU in regular-season home finale.

EAST LANSING, Mich. -- No. 8/12 Michigan State men's soccer was defeated by Rutgers, spoiling MSU's Senior Night on Friday at DeMartin Stadium.

Following the game, MSU honored seniors Colin Arce, Andrew Darakdjian, Leo Conneh, Will Eby, Richie Ludwig, Miles Merritt and Aidan Phelan.

"We've had seven awesome seniors," MSU head coach Damon Rensing said. "Leo (Conneh)'s been with us for three months. Colin (Arce), Aiden (Phelan), Will (Eby) and Richie (Ludwig) have been with us for four years, then obviously, Miles (Merritt) and Andrew (Darakdjian). So, they've all been great contributors in their own ways. They're all great people. They all represented themselves, their families, Michigan State soccer, Michigan State athletics, and Michigan State University with class. I'm very proud and fortunate to be able to coach all seven of them."

The Scarlet Knights scored two in the first half, before the Spartans cut the gap to 2-1 early in the second stanza, only to have RU tack on two more goals for a 4-1 final.

Friday's loss to the Scarlet Knights not only spoiled the Spartans' Senior Night recognitions for the second time in the last three years, as RU beat MSU, 1-0, on Nov. 3, 2024, but also was the Spartans' first home loss of the season, sliding to 7-1-3 at DeMartin, denying the Green & White their first unblemished home season since 2017.

Michigan State falls to 10-3-3 overall and 5-2-2 in Big Ten play. Rutgers improves to 8-6-2 overall and 6-3-1 in league action.

"I thought we started off really bright the first 10 minutes, and they just got a lot of numbers deep behind the ball. They didn't really press us, and they took away some space. I thought we could have gotten behind and been a little but more aggressive," Rensing said. "I didn't think we were quite ourselves tonight, and which is uncharacteristic of this team. But I think you've got to give some credit to Rutgers. They were good on the counter, and we knew that they were good in transitioning on restarts, and that's how they got their goals. So, I think they scored some timely goals right when we were trying to grab some momentum and could just could never get a hold of the game."

The Scarlet Knights opened up the scoring in the 18th minute with Amer Lukovic's fourth goal of the season off of passes from Dan Karsten and Francesco Di Ponzio to give Rutgers the 1-0 lead.

Before the half ended, RU doubled its lead in the 42nd minute. Zach Mastrodimos found the back of the net for the third time this season with an unassisted long-range goal.

Michigan State made it a 2-1 game in the 47th minute when junior forward Oscar Huerta scored his third goal this week and fourth overall. The play started at midfield with senior midfielder Miles Merritt, who found junior defender Brandon Munson on the left side. Munson got the ball to Huerta, who snuck the ball past RU goalkeeper Rafael Ponce De Leon.

The Scarlet Knights put the game away with a pair of second half goals. Erick Ruiz scored in the 60th minute and Lukovic found his second in the 74th to make it a 4-1 game.

In the 87th minute, MSU had a chance to cut into the Rutgers lead. Freshman midfielder Drew Rensing was fouled in the box. After a review, Huerta's penalty kick was saved by Ponce De Leon to keep the score 4-1.

The Spartans close out the regular season at No. 4 Indiana on Wednesday, Nov. 4 at 8 p.m. Seeding for the Big Ten Tournament will be on the line in the game.