Penn State men's soccer falls to Wisconsin on Senior Night

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – Penn State (5-8-2, 2-5-2) took to Jeffrey Field on a windy Saturday night for one last time in the 2024 regular season against Wisconsin (7-5-2, 2-5-2). The postgame ceremony honored the four seniors, Van Danielson, Ben Liscum, Sean Bettenhausen and Atem Kato, in celebration of Senior Night.

“I want to start by saying I’m really proud of the senior class, and I’m disappointed for those guys. They’ve given so much to this program during their time,” said Penn State’s head coach Jeff Cook.

The Nittany Lions entered the match-up after back-to-back conference road losses against Indiana and Washington.

The top seven teams of 18 in the Big Ten make it to the Big Ten tournament. The Nittany Lions entered kickoff holding onto that final and seventh qualifying spot.

Wisconsin set the pace of the game just seven minutes in, scoring their first goal. Dean Boltz hit the top right back of the net off of his top foot to record his tenth goal of the season. The freshman forward from Palatine, Illinois has been an electrifying addition to the Badger roster.

The Badgers consistently utilized players in space and pushed the pace, securing their first Big Ten road victory of the season.

Penn State struggled to string together passes and maintain offensive possession to create an opportunity on goal. They finished the half with two shots, just one on goal.

Penalties plagued Penn State who received four yellow cards in the first half. None of them were repeat offenders: Christian Dionne, Malick Daouda, Ben Madore.

“...We can’t look at excuses like the referee, like the wind. We have to accept responsibility,” said Cook.

Penn State took their first corner kick with six minutes left in the first half but were unable to capitalize on the opportunity.

Andrew Cooke gave up the second and last goal of the night to the Badgers with 3:35 remaining off of a strong header from Ryan Quintos.

The final offensive opportunity of this half came with 11 seconds left on a free kick after Wisconsin’s first yellow card to Will Smith.

Entering the second half, the blue and white demonstrated a greater intensity and pushed the pace more than in the first.

They strung together offensive possessions, increasing their total shots to seven, but just couldn’t find the back of the net.

“It was a much better second half for us. We forced one really good save on the goalkeeper midway through the second half, and I just think we need to produce more efforts on target,” said Cook.

Ben Liscum had the best shot of the match for the Nittany Lions with just under 30 minutes left. His strong shot to the top center was stopped by Matisse Hebert.

Penn State ferociously tried to prevent a shutout. They were granted a corner kick with just over three minutes left in gameplay. Matthew Henderson tried to set up a successful corner, but in the header in the scrum aftermath, Hebert strongly manned his goal.

Penn State heads to Chicago to face Northwestern in the 2024 regular-season finale on Nov. 3.

“We have to respond to it next week in Chicago, try everything we can to get a win and see if we can get ourselves to Chicago to represent Penn State in the Big Ten tournament.”

Julia Henry is a second-year majoring in broadcast journalism and labor and human resources, to contact her please email jbh6443@psu.edu.