Lansing Sun

EAST LANSING, Mich. - Behind a frenzied second half with thrilling defensive plays, the Michigan State men's soccer team captured a 1-0 win over Washington on Alumni Day to open Big Ten action.

With the win, the Spartans snapped a three-game winless streak, improving to 2-3-2 this season and 1-0-0 in B1G play, while the Huskies fell to 3-2-2 this season, losing their Big Ten opener. This is MSU's first-ever win against Washington, as the series now stands at 1-2-1.

"This is huge for the confidence of the players," MSU head coach Damon Rensing said. "I think that these types of wins could potentially change seasons. We haven't played far off in a lot of games like this, but sometimes you just need the ball to bounce your way to have that belief and to solidify what you're doing and reinforce what we're doing and we're really, really, really happy for the guys."

The Spartans came out aggressive in the first half with junior forward Jake Spadafora leading the charge with a shot in the second minute. Michigan State was locked in defensively with several blocked shots, keeping redshirt-junior goalkeeper Zac Kelly out of danger. By the end of the first half, UW led in the shot column 7-3.

In the second half, the Spartans came to life on both sides of the field. In the 62nd minute junior midfielder Jonathan Stout scored the game's only goal with a long-distance blast that was out of reach of UW goalkeeper Jadon Bowton. It was one of only two shots on goal on the day for the Spartans. Stout leads the team with two goals this season.

The defense took it from there. In the 65th minute, Harrison Bertos' shot eluded Kelly, but freshman defender Brandon Munson's bicycle kick save kept the ball from reaching the back of net, keeping MSU on top 1-0. In the 87th minute, a Spartan was called for a handball in box leading to a Peter Kingston penalty kick. Kelly punched away shot to thwart Huskies again. Seconds later after corner kick Kelly was resilient again making save on Egor Akulov to seal win.

"That's what coaching is all about," Rensing said. "You just want to see them enjoy what hard work and when you play together as a team what that can be and what result can be. So I told them if they play like that I'll walk off field regardless of result happy for them. I think doing it front alums I told them too like that was Spartan soccer team It doesn't matter if you were there 10 years ago or 20 years ago or 30 or 40 years ago every single alum is like that was Spartan soccer team and that me greatest compliment I think you could give these guys in 2024 season."

The Spartans improved to 2-0-0 this season when being outshot as UW out-shot MSU 12-9 Kelly picked up his second shutout of season.

"I think it's really good start for us starting Big Ten Conference play like that," Kelly said "It's lot momentum we need all It's really good start I'm excited see next couple games That's means us Keep zero scoreboard they can't win so gave opportunity win game our job keep way."

Michigan State will next travel Penn State Friday Oct at