ANN ARBOR, MICH. – The Rutgers men's soccer team battled back to pull within a goal in the final 11 minutes of play, but the Scarlet Knights could not find the equalizer in their 2-1 setback to Northwestern in the play-in game of the Big Ten Tournament on Saturday afternoon at U-M Soccer Stadium.

The eighth-seeded Wildcats (7-11-0) advance to meet regular season champion and top-seed Michigan in the quarterfinals on Sunday. The ninth-seeded Scarlet Knights finish the 2017 season at 4-13-1.

"We fought hard and never gave up," said head coach Dan Donigan. "I thought we had the better of the play in the game for the most part. Give Northwestern credit, they got the goals and made good on the chances they had. Unfortunately we couldn't find that final, tying goal. I thank my guys for working hard and battling to the very end today."

Rutgers spend much of the first half pestering the Wildcat net, but it was Northwestern's Tommy Katsiyiannis who broke open the game to put his squad up 1-0 in the 33^rd minute. After an early second half goal by Mac Mazzola, Katsiyiannis went on to give the Wildcats a 3-0 lead in the game's 64^th minute.

Moments later, however, the Scarlet Knights would begin its late push to try and advance.  Rutgers immediately punched back with junior Thomas Dovell sending in a pass to classmate Niel Guzman to put the Scarlet Knights onto the scoreboard.

Rutgers then cut the deficit down to one with just over 11 minutes to go. Redshirt senior Erik Sa's free kick from 20 yards out connected with senior Ryan Peterson for a header into the Wildcat goal.

Trailing 2-1, the Scarlet Knights had chances for an equalizer in the closing minutes with a corner kick opportunity and shot by Peterson, Peterson's attempt with just over two minutes to go went over the Wildcat net.

The Scarlet Knights ended the tournament game outshooting the Wildcats, 18-14, while both teams logged four corner kicks apiece.

In goal, RU's Rafael Pereira made six saves, while the Wildcats' Robbie White made five stops.

KNIGHT NOTES:
- Senior Ryan Peterson led Rutgers with nine points (4G, 1A) in 2017. In his two seasons at Rutgers, he logged 11 points (4G, 3A).
- Redshirt senior Erik Sa finished his final season with eight points (3G, 2A) and collected 27 points (8G, 11A) during his career. He finishes 21^st on the all-time Rutgers scoring leaders list.
- Senior Niel Guzman rounds out his Scarlet Knight career with 17 points (6G, 5A), including five points (2G, 1A) in 2017.
- Junior Thomas Dovell closed out the year with five points (2G, 1A) and now has nine career points (3G, 3A).
 
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