PISCATAWAY, N.J. – The Ohio State Buckeyes were able to slip past the Rutgers men's soccer team on Sunday afternoon capitalizing off a corner kick opportunity to hand the Scarlet Knights a 1-0 setback.
 

MATCH SUMMARY

• The two squads played to a scoreless intermission with Rutgers' best chances of the half coming midway thru the opening stanza.
• In the 20^th minute, sophomore Valentino Ambrosio was denied at close range from the left post and a minute later a short header by sophomore Pablo Ávila set up Jackson Temple from six yards out with Ohio State's Parker Siegfried making stops on both attempts.
• Rutgers had several second half chances go wide of the posts in the second half.
• Off the restart in the midfield in the 65^th minute, Ávila found freshman Hugo Le Guennec for the header and three minutes later freshman Anthony O'Donnell fed Ávila to turn and fire wide with both chances just outside the right post.
• The Buckeyes claimed the game's lone goal in the 72^nd minute off the corner serve from Matteo Bennati finding the head of Samuel Buzzas to knock the ball into the right corner.
• Junior captain Vincent Borden kept the Buckeyes from getting onto the scoreboard again in the 78^th minute. With an open field, OSU's Joe Ortiz tried to chip the ball in past James Teal when a sliding Borden came to clear the ball in front of the goal line to get credit for the defensive stop.
• The Scarlet Knights had four attempts to close out the contest with the Buckeyes' Siegfried make two saves down the stretch.

KEY STATS

• Rutgers dropped to 6-3-2 overall and 0-3-1 in Big Ten play, while Ohio State upped its mark to 6-4-1 overall and 1-2-1 in league action.
• The Scarlet Knights outshot the Buckeyes, 12-10, with three of the Ohio State's shots coming on net. Pablo Ávila led RU with four shots, while freshman Jackson Temple had two shots, both on frame.
• Ohio State held the 7-5 edge in corners collecting the game-winner on their fifth serve of the afternoon.
• Freshman goalkeeper Oren Asher was credited one save in 73 minutes of action, while James Teal played the final 17 minutes of action.
• The Buckeyes' Parker Siegfried totaled six saves for the shutout.

KNIGHT NOTES

• Tim McQuaid made his first appearance of the 2019 season.
• Rutgers' 12 shots, including six on goal, were the most for the Scarlet Knights in Big Ten play thus far.
   

MATCH QUOTES

"I thought we battled well, the game was physical, but it all came down to a set piece. I thought we had a lot of set pieces, but they scored on it, we didn't and that was the game."  – sophomore Thomas DeVizio

"I think it's been the story of the last couple of week. I thought for long stretches we played quite well and we created some really good chances today. Their keeper made a couple of great saves in the first half and then I thought the second half we didn't get those shots on target. You have to test the goalkeeper and really cause problems for him, we didn't and then the game gets decided on a corner. That's the little details we have to get better at." - head coach Jim McElderry
 

MATCH HIGHLIGHTS

 

PHOTO GALLERY

 

UP NEXT

The Rutgers men's soccer team is back at Yurcak Field on Friday, Oct. 11 to host Wisconsin at 7 p.m.

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