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Oct. 30, 2016
EVANSTON, Ill. - The Penn State men's soccer team concluded its 2016 regular season with a 1-0 loss in a Big Ten Conference match to the Wildcats of Northwestern at Lanny and Sharon Martin Stadium Sunday, Oct. 30.
The Nittany Lions (8-7-2, 4-4-0) outshot Northwestern (5-10-1) 16-8 in the match and both teams put an even five shots on net.
Senior Connor Maloney (Harrisburg, Pa.) and junior Aymar Sigue (Alberta, Canada) each had two shots on goal for the Nittany Lions, while Dani Marks (Ra'nana, Israel) had one shot reach net. Redshirt-junior goalkeeper Evan Finney (San Francisco, Calif.) made four saves in the afternoon match and allowed one goal in the 90-minute match.
Jeffrey Hopson scored the lone goal of the game in the first half of the match off a pass from Riley Kelliher. Also putting shots on net for Northwestern were Brandon Medina with two shots and Mike Roberge and Tuji Getenet each taking one apiece. Francisco Tomasino made five saves for NU and did not give up a goal in 90 minutes of action to earn his fifth win of the season.
Penn State attacked early on the Wildcats, but it was Northwestern who took the lead as Roberge crossed the ball to Hopson, who headed the ball into the back the net to give NU the 1-0 advantage in the 25th-minute of the match.
The Nittany Lions were unable to tie the score as they headed into the locker room down by one at the half. Both Penn State and the Wildcats took shots in the opening frame with NU putting three on goal and the Blue and White testing the keeper two times.
Penn State pressed in the second half of the match when C. Maloney had a shot sail about five inches wide of the left side of the net and Sigue followed it up with a shot that had a huge save from Tomasino in the 73rd-minute.
Sigue put one more shot on goal for the Nittany Lions but it was not enough as Penn State fell 1-0 to the Wildcats in their final regular season match of the 2016 campaign.
The Nittany Lions will await the conclusion of all conference matches to find out where it landed in the tournament standings. The Nittany Lions can be no lower than fifth in the conference and no higher than second as Maryland clinched the regular season title.