PISCATAWAY, N.J. – Junior Thomas Dovell gave the Rutgers men's soccer team a 1-0 edge midway through the first half, but Wisconsin put together a trio of second half goals enroute to a 3-2 win over the Scarlet Knights on Sunday at Yurcak Field.

Rutgers (2-8-1, 0-5-0 Big Ten) cut its deficit down to one with less than ten minutes remaining in the contest. Moments after Wisconsin pulled ahead 3-1, Erik Sa sent in a restart from the far side of the field into the box, where it was knocked in by a Badger defender.

RU had a few chances to try and force overtime with two late corners. Vincent Borden got a foot on a loose ball that was halted by Badger netminder Phillip Schilling with 5:46 to go and Wisconsin cleared out a serve as the final seconds wound down.

"I thought we had a tremendous first half," said head coach Dan Donigan. "I love the fight from our guys, especially in the first 45, but we need a little more fight in the second half. The game got away from us in the second half. Two of their goals came off long throw-in set pieces situations that we knew we didn't want to have to deal with. They capitalized on our mistakes by not getting balls up field and giving them throw-ins deep in our end. You try and stay away from those opportunities but they got us in the end."

Dovell captured his first goal of the season in the 27^th minute. Sa racing into the box and looking to pass ahead was stopped by the Badger defense. Ryan Peterson, however came sliding in, pushing the ball to his left, and finding Dovell open eight-yards out for the game's first goal.
 

Take a look back at Thomas Dovell's first half goal to put #RFutbol up 1-0 on Wisconsin pic.twitter.com/jkyer6uL5R

— Rutgers Men's Soccer (@RUMensSoccer) October 1, 2017
 

Wisconsin (6-2-2, 3-1-0 Big Ten) turned up the offense in the second half. After being limited to five first half shots, the Badgers fired off 14 second half attempts and tied the game at 1-1 in the 54^th minute. Chris Mueller's pass from the right side of the box resulted in a header from Mike Catalano finding the back of the Scarlet Knight net.

The Badgers pulled ahead, 2-1, in the 65^th minute. Coming off a throw-in at the far side, the ball bounced around until a Mueller header directed the ball to Tom Barlow. Barlow with his back to the goal passed back to Elan Koenig who found the opening at the top of the 18.

Wisconsin took a 3-1 edge in the 80^th minute capitalizing on a Mark Segbers takeaway. Segbers pushed the ball ahead to Mueller for the shot from 15-yards out.

"That third goal was key. It really hurt us," added Donigan. "Credit to Wisconsin and the second half that they played. We got to learn to define the crucial moments in games and not give our opponents those type of opportunities."

It was only 56 seconds after the Badgers' third goal that the own goal put Rutgers right back into the game, cutting the Scarlet Knights deficit to one goal.

Rutgers was outshot 19-12 and held a 5-3 advantage in corners.

RU totaled six saves in the loss. Rafael Pereira made three saves in goal while the Rutgers defense accounted for the Scarlet Knights' three other stops. Schilling also made three saves for Wisconsin in the win.

The Rutgers men's soccer team returns to the pitch on Friday at No. 20 Michigan. Game time is set for 7 p.m. in Ann Arbor. The Wolverines are the seventh top 25 program RU will face this season.

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