PISCATAWAY, N.J. - After unfavorable weather and field conditions canceled Tuesday night's nonconference matchup with Marist, the Rutgers men's soccer team return sto action embarking on its first Big Ten road trip of the year. Rutgers heads to No. 5 Michigan State for a Friday night tilt with the Spartans. 

HOW TO WATCH
Friday's game will be streamed live on BTN Plus.

To learn more about BTN Plus and subscription packages, click here.



LAST TIME OUT
In their last contest on Saturday night, RU suffered a 2-0 setback to Michigan, the 2017 Big Ten regular season champion and a squad that moved up to No. 21 in this week's United Soccer Coaches Poll.

Michigan's Umar Farouk Osman scored twice midway through the second half to spoil the Big Ten opener for the Scarlet Knights.

It was nearly 30 minutes into the first half before either Rutgers or Michigan were able to get chances on goal. The Scarlet Knights nearly lit up the scoreboard in the final two minutes of the opening stanza with Brian Hawkins firing away between two Wolverine defenders. The shot, however, hit the far post to keep the score knotted at 0-0 entering the intermission.

Scarlet Knight goalkeeper Rafael Pereira came up with a big save 10 minutes into the second half to keep the game scoreless, making a diving save to his left denying the header by Daniel Mukuna and the Wolverine's Jackson Ragen followed by hitting the ball into the near post.

Michigan's first goal came in the 62nd minute with Osman breaking the scoreless stalemate with the left footed shot off a pass from Mohammad Zakyi from 20 yards out into the upper left corner.

Less than four minutes later, the Wolverine added his second score of the night putting away a deflected throw-in by Austin Swiech at the back post.

ABOUT MICHIGAN STATE
Ranked at #5 in this week's United Soccer Coaches Poll, the Spartans enter the week with a 6-0-2 mark and face the Scarlet Knights in their first Big Ten contest of the year. 

Michigan State is coming off a 1-0 victory at #8 Notre Dame on Monday with freshman forward Farai Mutatu scoring with less than four minutes left in regulation.

Senior forward DeJuan Jones currently leads the Spartans with 11 points (5G, 1A) and is followed by senior forward Ryan Sierakowski (3G, 4A) and junior midfielder Giuseppe Barone (2G, 6A) with 10 points each.

Goalkeeper Jimmy Hague has registered four shutouts thru eight games for Michigan State. The redshirt senior is holding a 0.61 goals against average and .833 save percentage.

LAST TIME AGAINST MICHIGAN STATE
Despite stopping No. 13 Michigan State's season-opening shutout streak, the Rutgers men's soccer team dropped a 2-1 decision to the nationally-ranked Spartans on September 8 in the 2017 Big Ten opener.

Former Scarlet Knight midfielder Ryan Peterson made it a one-goal game with a penalty kick in the 82nd minute ending MSU's streak of 441 scoreless minutes. The Spartans had opened up the 2017 campaign with four-consecutive clean sheets for the first time since 1968.

While the Scarlet Knights still had several chances as the clock was winding down, RU was unable to find the equalizer before regulation expired.

Rutgers was facing its third top 15 opponent in its first five games of the 2017 campaign.

After a scoreless first half, the Spartans' DeJuan Jones and Michael Pimlott tag teamed to put Michigan State ahead 12 minutes into the second half.

The Scarlet Knights, who ended the evening outshooting the Spartans 19-6, were relentless in trying to tie the game.

Redshirt senior midfielder Erik Sa nearly put away RU's first goal of the night in the 63rd minute. After being taken down just outside the 18, the Watchung, New Jersey product's free kick was deflected by MSU goalkeeper Jimmy Hague into the crossbar and back into play.

After Peterson's penalty kick saw RU trail 2-1, Sa again had another free kick opportunity in the closing moments. Serving into the box from the left side, he found Ethan Vanacore-Decker in the crowd in front of the Spartan net, where Hague came up with another big save for Michigan State.

Hague finished the night with seven saves. Rutgers' netminder Rafael Pereira made three stops in the loss.

B1G STAT SPEAKING
Rutgers leading scorer Jordan Hall currently leads the Big Ten in shots, averaging 3.00 attempts per game and totaling 18 over the first six games of the season.

UP NEXT
The Scarlet Knights return to Yurcak Field to host Maryland on Wednesday, Sept. 26 at 7 p.m. and then hit the road for another Big Ten contest at Ohio State on Sept. 30 on BTN.

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