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Nov, 6, 2016
EAST LANSING, Mich. - The Penn State men's soccer suffered a 2-1 setback to No. 15 Michigan State in the quarterfinals of the Big Ten Tournament Sunday, Nov. 6 at DeMartin Stadium.
The Nittany Lions (8-8-2) saw their 2016 come to a close in the quarterfinal match of the tournament as the Spartans earned the 2-1 victory and capped off an undefeated season at DeMartin Stadium.
The Blue and White were outshot 13-4 in the 90-minute match and redshirt-junior goalkeeper Evan Finney (San Francisco, Calif.) made five saves in the match for Penn State. Senior Connor Maloney (Harrisburg, Pa.) capped off his career as a Nittany Lion scoring his eighth goal of the season and 27th of his career.
Giuseppe Barone notched the first goal of the match for the Spartans, while Jimmy Fiscus' game-winner was the first of the season for the MSU forward. Sophomore Ryan Sierakowski picked up two assists on the afternoon and Ken Krolicki added one to his stat line. Goalkeeper Jimmy Hague gave up one goal and did not make a save in the match.
A scrum in front of Finney turned into a goal for the Spartans as the redshirt-junior made a diving save to his left side before a big rebound came out to the top of the box and allowed Barone to put a goal into the bottom left corner of the net in the 18th-minute of the match.
Maloney collected the ball from 25-yards out and was brought to the ground on a Michigan State foul. The senior midfielder composed himself for the free kick and blasted the ball into the lower left corner of the net to score his eighth goal of the season and knot the score at 1-1 with four minutes remaining in the first half.
Penn State took the 1-1 tie into the locker room after the Maloney equalizer. The Nittany Lions were outshot 6-3 in the opening half, while Finney made two saves in the opening 45 minutes of play.
The Spartans took the lead for the second time in the match when a rebound to the right of Finney allowed Fiscus to head the ball into the bottom of the net in the 74th-minute of play in the quarterfinal match.
Penn State was unable to find its second tying goal of the match, falling 2-1 to the Spartans on the road.
The NIttany Lions closed out the 2016 season with an 8-8-2 overall record and a 4-4-0 record in Big Ten Conference play. Maloney paced Penn State for the third-straight season with eight goals and five assists, earning unanimous First Team All-Big Ten honors, while senior Robby Sagel (Las Vegas, Nev.) earned Second Team All-Big Ten honors.