Men's Soccer Falls Short at Michigan

Friday, October 6

Ann Arbor, Mich.

7:00 PM

Rutgers University

2-9-1, 0-6B1G

Michigan

7-3-2, 4-1-1B1G

Rutgers

Michigan

Photo by: Rich Graessle

Oct 06 | Men's Soccer

Box Score Box Score (PDF)

Scarlet Knights Rally From Early Deficit To Trail By One Goal at the Intermission off Header by Ryan Peterson

ANN ARBOR, MICH. – The Rutgers men's soccer team battled back from an early deficit against Michigan and trailed by a goal at the intermission. The Wolverines, however, added an insurance goal early in the second half enroute to the 3-1 win over the Scarlet Knights.

Michigan (7-3-2, 4-1-1 Big Ten) mustered a 2-0 edge 20 minutes into the contest off a goals by Ivo Cerda and Francis Atuahene.

The Scarlet Knights (2-9-1, 0-6-0 Big Ten) though would strike in the 38^th minute and trail 2-1 at the half.

Redshirt senior midfielder Erik Sa took a restart from 35-yards out looking to bend the ball into the back left side of the Wolverine goal. Senior forward Ryan Peterson, however, dove to head the ball across the goal and into the right side for his second goal of the season.

"Michigan is a very good, dangerous attacking team," said head coach Dan Donigan. "They are very good going forward. The first 10 minutes of the game we make two mistakes, they created their chances and got two goals for us to be down early. We were able to fight to battle back and played a lot better to get the goal back and make it 2-1.

"It was a tight ball game back and forth. We knew we were going to have to weather the storm in the beginning of the second half, it's who they are."

The Wolverines went on to add an insurance goal by Atuahene in the 57^th minute while keeping Rutgers at bay.

"We lost the ball in the midfield. We had a chance to clear it out and it looked like we got fouled on the play," explained Donigan. "Atuahene jumped on the loose ball, that we should've have cleared and gotten out, but we made a mistake to open the gap. We then had to chase Michigan the game the rest of the time."

In goal, junior goalkeeper Rafael Pereira made five saves. His counterpart Andrew Verdi made three stops, including potential equalizers by Sa off a restart late in the first half and an early attempt by Vincent Borden in the second half.

The Rutgers men's soccer team returns home for a nonconference contest with NJIT on Wednesday, Oct. 11. Game time is set for 7 p.m. with videostream available on BTN Plus.

Follow Rutgers men's soccer on Facebook (www.facebook.com/RutgersMensSoccer) and Twitter (www.twitter.com/RUMensSoccer) for all of the latest news and updates. Fans also receive timely information, including special offers and giveaways throughout the year on both social media outlets along with www.ScarletKnights.com.

-RU-