By Derek Brightwell

Heading into Tuesday night’s game at Lynn Stadium, Ohio State and the fifth ranked Louisville Cardinals were two teams whose seasons were heading in completely different directions. Winners of four straight and coming off a rout of Pittsburgh, Louisville seemed poised to stay unbeaten at the impressive new stadium. The Buckeyes had dropped their previous three matches, scoring only once during the streak.

But that’s why they play the games.

In 34th minute, Ohio State senior midfielder Yianni Sarris scored his team leading third goal of the season to give the Buckeyes the lead and the only goal of the match.

“Just a loose ball that I think came from a cross and I was late stepping to it,” senior defender Daniel Keller said of the game’s only goal. “He took a shot and it deflected off my leg and Joe really couldn’t really do anything about it.”

While Louisville had several chances early in the match, totaling 10 shots to the Buckeye’s three in the first period, they never managed to finish in the final third of the field. Junior forward Ricardo Velazco attributed that to the team’s energy coming out.

“We need to come out sharper and more aggressive,” Velazco said. “We kind of went through the motions a little bit. Just be more focused in general. We slipped up, had one mistake and they punished us. We had a lot of bounces around the box; we just couldn’t finish.”

“I think these last couple of games we’d been doing really well getting around the ball, getting numbers around it and doing well in the final third,” sophomore midfielder Romilio Hernandez added. “I think today, we lacked that extra pass in the final third that basically releases the goal and we just couldn’t find it today.”

Head coach Ken Lolla echoed his players’ sentiments on the overall effort of the match.

“I think early on, we lacked an intensity, a sharpness, a focus,” he said. “I don’t think the attitude was good early. Things like our pressing are what define us. And early on, you could see it wasn’t good enough. We weren’t sharp enough in the final third and although we had a lot of possession of the ball, the possession didn’t result in enough really quality chances and we didn’t take them very well. Unfortunately, it didn’t really change throughout the game.

“I think it was probably our poorest performance to date,” he added. “It just shows where we are that we have a lot of growth left as a team.”

Perhaps the Cards best chance to score came in the 75th minute when Velazco, who leads the team in goals with four, had a shot at an open net in traffic that he put just over the goal.

“I have nothing to say. I was really disappointed I couldn’t put it in,” he said of the miss. “I let the team down, it was my responsibility. So, it was a big mistake that I did, next time I’ve got to be more focused and put it in the back of the net.”

The loss, which was only Louisville’s second of the year, was their first at Lynn Stadium. While the Cards have been leading the nation in attendance so far this year, coach Lolla hopes that this loss will not deter people from continuing to support them.

“For all the people who have come to see us for the first time tonight,” he said, “I would say give us another chance and come back because this wasn’t Louisville soccer.”