UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – The Penn State men's soccer (2-5-1, 1-1-1 Big Ten) team battled hard for 90 minutes, but fell to No. 5 Michigan State (8-0-2, 2-0-0 Big Ten), 1-0, Wednesday evening at Jeffrey Field.
"I give our team a lot of credit for the way they responded to going behind late in the game," said head coach Jeff Cook. "I think we pushed a very experienced and talented Michigan State team right to the brink and were really unlucky not to score a goal ourselves. It's disappointing to come out on the wrong end of the 1-0 score line, but I have to give our guys a lot of credit. It's not easy playing a really top, top opponent, and Michigan State is experienced and very athletic. We have a lot of respect for them, but again I think our response to going behind was great."
Behind the diving efforts of redshirt sophomore goalkeeper Josh Levine, Penn State was able to keep the ranked-Spartans out of the back of the net for the entirety of the first half.
Levine's first save came in the ninth minute after Michigan State's DeJuan Jones was able to get in front of the Nittany Lion defense and take the shot at the net. Levine took a diving save to his left to keep the game tied at zero.
Levine would go on to make four more incredible saves in the half to keep the Spartans scoreless.
LEVINE THE MACHINE!@PennStateMSOC is tied with #5 Michigan State thanks to some great saves from the Nittany Lions' goalkeeper! #WeAre pic.twitter.com/tOfuQG1VT1
— Penn State On BTN (@PennStateOnBTN) September 26, 2018
The Nittany Lions got things rolling in the second half when sophomore Mikey Conneh took a great look at the net in the 66th minute but a Spartan defender got in front of the ball for the block.
Michigan State's John Freitag scored the lone goal in the match in the 74th minute off the pass from teammate Giuseppe Barone inside the box.
Penn State fought hard for the equalizer in the remaining 15 minutes with great looks at the net by Callum Pritchatt, Jeremy Rafanello and Brandon Hackenberg.
Levine finished the match with eight saves, tying his season high also posted against UCF in the season opener on Aug. 24.
Up next Penn State faces its third ranked opponent in as many matches when they travel to Bloomington, Ind. to take on No. 2 Indiana. The game is slated for a 1 p.m. start on Sunday, Sept. 30 and will be streamed live on BTN+.