Ohio State Takes Down Michigan, Earns No. 2 Seed – Ohio State Buckeyes

Wednesday, November 5

Ann Arbor, Mich.

Ohio State

8-6-4, 5-3

Michigan

6-8-3, 3-3-2

Team	1	2	Final F
Ohio State	1	1	2
Michigan	1	0	1

Ohio State Takes Down Michigan, Earns No. 2 Seed – Ohio State Buckeyes

11/5/2014 12:00:00 AM | Men's Soccer

Box Score

Nov. 5, 2014

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· 2014 Big Ten Tournament Bracket

· VOTE for Ivanov – Senior CLASS Award Finalist

COLUMBUS, Ohio -The Ohio State men’s soccer team concluded the regular season with a 2-1 road win at Michigan Wednesday evening at U-M Field in Ann Arbor. With the road league victory, the Buckeyes (8-6-4, 5-3 Big Ten) earn the No. 2 seed for the 2014 Big Ten Tournament and will host the No. 7 seed Wolverines (6-8-3, 3-3-2) at 1 p.m. ET Sunday in the quarterfinals at Jesse Owens Memorial Stadium in Columbus.

“Tonight’s game was very difficult and it was an even, hard-fought match,” head coach John Bluem said. “I’m really happy for our guys and they were able to come up here and take care of business. Michigan is a tough team to play against and it’s not going to be an easy task for us on Sunday to beat them twice in a span of five days. The guys are hungry and I believe they are ready to take this momentum going into postseason play.”

The Buckeyes had a chance to claim a share of the Big Ten title with a win over the Maize and Blue, but that was wiped off the board following a 3-2 win for Maryland at Rutgers as the first-year Big ten team was crowned league champions. The No. 1 seed Terrapins will take on the winner of the play-in game between No. 8 seed Rutgers and No. 9 Wisconsin in one of four quarterfinal site matches. By a goal differential tiebreaker, Ohio State picked up the second seed followed by No. 3 seed Northwestern and No. 4 seed Penn State. The full listing of the Sunday quarterfinal matches is listed below.

“My congratulations to Maryland, they’ve had a good season,” Bluem said. “For our guys to end up tied for second in one of the top conferences in the country is a great accomplishment and it’s fantastic that we get to play in front of our home fans this weekend in Columbus.”

Offensively, sophomore forward Danny Jensen scored his season-best fourth goal in the opening minute of play, while classmate Christian Soldat sent in the eventual gamewinning goal in the 85th minute for his third score of the season. Senior goalkeeper Alex Ivanov had another big night for the Scarlet and Gray in front of net, making six saves, including one stop on a penalty kick in the 30th minute. The Senior CLASS Award Finalist improves to 8-6-4 overall in 2014.

With the score tied, 1-1, and overtime just minutes away, Soldat, a native of Rockwall, Texas, took the ball out wide in the team’s attacking third and cut across the top of the 18 to set up a low, hard shot that went through an area of Ohio State players and UM defenders. The traffic in front of net froze UM keeper Adam Grinwis and the ball went inside the far post to give Ohio State the 2-1 advantage. Junior midfielder Kyle Culbertson was credited with the assist on the play. Ivanov made his sixth save of the night in the 88th and Michigan’s last second attempt for an equalizer in the final seconds went wide of net to end the contest. Overall, shots were 16-12 in favor of the Buckeyes, including an 11-4 advantage in the second half.

The Buckeyes got the early goal they were looking for coming into the road match vs. the Wolverines. Just off kickoff, senior midfielder Max Moller sent a well-timed through ball to Jensen, who struck his shot into the left side of net 34 seconds into the match to make it 1-0 in favor of the Scarlet and Gray.

Ohio State did a great job of controlling possession until the Wolverines picked up the pace on the attack. A foul inside the penalty area by the Buckeyes in the 30th minute led to a Michigan penalty kick, but Ivanov, came up huge in his final regular season match of his career. The Big Ten Defensive Player of the Week, Ivanov stretched to his right side and denied Tyler Arnone the penalty chance at 30:06 However, a UM corner followed and Ben Manko headed in a goal and was assisted by Marcos Ugarte at 30:24 to tie the match at 1-1.

The Wolverines controlled the momentum for the remainder of the first half, posting three shots on target against Ivanov, but the senior goalkeeper was in solid position on every shot and collected five first-half saves to keep it at 1-1 heading into halftime. At half, shots were 8-5 in favor of the Wolverines, while the Maize and Blue had a 3-0 lead in corners.

The second weekend for tournament, featuring the semifinals (Nov. 14) and championship matches (Nov. 16) will be played at the site of the highest remaining seed. BTN will broadcast the final three matches of the tournament.

2014 Big Ten Tournament Quarterfinal Matchups

Sunday, Nov. 9th
No. 1 seed Maryland vs. No. 8 Rutgers/No. 9 Wisconsin winner – College Park, Md.
No. 2 seed Ohio State vs. No. 7 seed Michigan – Columbus, Ohio (1 p.m. kickoff)
No. 3 seed Northwestern vs. No. 6 seed Indiana – Evanston, Ill.
No. 4 seed Penn State vs. No. 5 seed Michigan State – University Park, Pa.