Lansing Sun

EAST LANSING, Mich. - Michigan State men's soccer opens its home schedule against Bowling Green on Monday, Aug. 26 at 7 p.m. at DeMartin Stadium. Monday is Welcome Back Students Night at DeMartin.

In the season opener, the Spartans tied No. 25 SIUE 1-1 in Edwardsville, Illinois on Thursday, Aug. 22. Senior midfielder Sean Kerrigan provided the offense by converting a penalty kick in the first half.

Brad LaPlante and Joe DesVergnes are on the call for B1G+.

Bowling Green earned a season-opening win against Wright State on Friday, 3-2. After trailing 2-0 at halftime, the Falcons came back to score three second-half goals.

BGSU was picked to finish fourth in the Missouri Valley Conference. The Falcons return 17 of 20 players from last year's team. Alberto Anaya and Trace Terry were both named All-MVC honors last season.

Michigan State leads the overall series with Bowling Green 25-17-7. In East Lansing, MSU holds a 10-3 advantage while having a slight lead at Bowling Green 11-10-4. Last season's meeting was also MSU's home opener with the Spartans coming out on top 3-0. Michigan State got goals from Efosa Emovon, Jake Spadafora, and Colin Arce. MSU is 8-1-1 against BGSU in the last ten games.

This season, new rule changes include stopping the clock on substitutions with 15 minutes left if the game is tied or if the winning team makes a substitution. Substitutions can be made during any stoppage of time and teams are allowed six moments to make substitutions in a game under certain conditions.

Senior midfielder Sean Kerrigan scored the Spartans' only goal in the tie against No. 25 SIUE and continues to excel from the penalty spot.

Junior midfielder Jonathan Stout was named to the Missouri Athletic Club (MAC) Hermann Trophy Watch List, an award presented annually to outstanding male and female college soccer players.

Michigan State had three players named to the Big Ten Players to Watch List: Juniors Jeremy Sharp, Jake Spadafora, and Jonathan Stout were all honored by the league.

The Big Ten preseason poll released Tuesday showed MSU picked fifth while Indiana was picked to win the league followed by Penn State and newcomer UCLA.

The Spartans played two exhibition games to prepare for this season: defeating Butler on Aug. 12 but falling to UIC on Aug. 16 at DeMartin Stadium.

The Spartans welcome eight new players including four freshmen and four transfers: Levin Gerhardt from CSUN, Shion Soga from South Florida, Michael Sly Jr., from Oakland University, and Ryan Van De Winkle from Loyola Chicago; along with freshmen Jake Grekowicz (goalkeeper), Oscar Huerta (forward), Brandon Munson (defender), and Jared Smid (midfielder).

Michigan State brings back its top eight scorers from last season including senior midfielder Sean Kerrigan who led with six goals for twelve points; junior midfielder Jonathan Stout was second with ten points; juniors Jake Spadafora and Jeremy Sharp were tied for third with seven points each.

Redshirt-junior goalkeeper Zac Kelly returns after allowing only fifteen goals in sixteen games last season for a GAA of .94.

The Spartans next host Villanova on Friday Sept.,30 at noon.

MSU head coach Damon Rensing enters his sixteenth season leading Michigan State alongside assistant coaches T.J Kolba entering his sixth year Nick Barry his fifth year Reid Friedrichs enters his second year as assistant coach having been awarded Big Ten Player of Year honors during his playing career in1996