Rutgers men’s soccer defeats Ohio State 4-0 to clinch No. 6 seed in B1G Tournament

The Rutgers men’s soccer team ended the regular season with a 4-0 win over Ohio State (6-8-1, 2-5-0) on Sunday at Yurcak Field. It was the largest margin of victory for the Scarlet Knights in a Big Ten game ever. It was also the most goals scored in a Big Ten game since 2015 and the last time they scored four goals was a victory over Lafayette in 2018.

Rutgers opened the scoring with an Ola Maaland goal in the 35th minute off of a rebound that earned Jackson Temple the assist.

After leading 1-0 at the half, Temple in the 48th minute on a breakaway that he was able to finish under heavy pressure from the Buckeyes defense.

Colin Beasley then took over the game with his first two goals of the season. Both were tremendous shots from far out, with the first coming on an assist from Thomas DeVizio in the 81st minute.

The second was from right outside of the box and Temple earned his second assist of the game.

Ohio State actually outshot Rutgers 16-13 in the game, but RU held a 7-4 advantage with shots on goal in the 4-1 triumph.

Goalkeeper Oren Asher made four saves in delivering his seventh shutout of the season. That’s the most by a Rutgers netminder since David Greczek had eight clean sheets in 2015.

“We’re really proud of the group,” said head coach Jim McElderry. “It’s tough coming into these knockout type games, and there is pressure on the guys because they felt if we didn’t get the result, if we didn’t qualify for the conference playoffs, it would be a disappointing season for us. I was really proud of their approach. Ohio State has some excellent players, so for us to put that performance together, some guys really stepped up.”

Jackson Temple leads Rutgers with six goals this season and 14 points overall. Thomas DeVizio registered his team leading fifth assist on Senior Day and Ola Maaland’s second goal of the season put him second on the team with 8 points.

Rutgers finished the regular season with a 9-5-2 overall record and 3-4-1 in Big Ten play. They earned the No. 6 seed in the Big Ten Tournament and will return to Bloomington for a quarterfinals rematch with No. 3 seed Indiana on Sunday, November 7 at 1 p.m. ET. The Scarlet Knights stunned the then No. 11 ranked Hoosiers 2-1 to open Big Ten play in September. Indiana finished the regular season with a 12-4-1 record overall and finished third in the conference with a 5-3-0 record. They’re currently ranked No. 21 in the latest coaches poll.

While the Scarlet Knights have had some good moments this season, they’ll likely need to advance to the Big Ten championship game at a minimum to have a chance to make the program’s first NCAA Tournament since 2015. Winning at Indiana twice in two months is a tall task but McElderry’s team has the confidence of doing it before. We’ll have full postgame coverage and once streaming or television information is announced, it will be added here.