Nov. 18, 2005
OHIO STATE HEAD COACH JOHN BLUEM:
On the game:
"It was a very tight, physical game. One goal was the difference, it was a very good goal. I'm extremely proud of our players for the effort we made. It's difficult to come this far across the country and play a game. I thought we did very well."
On the last five minutes of the match:
"I think it's natural in a game when you're losing 1-0and time is running out and you take the risk to throw more people forward and you really don't care at that point in time if they score another goal against you. It doesn't matter if you lose 2-0 or 1-0, so I think what really happens is that you just get more numbers forward, and as you put it yourself, time was running out and you got to do everything you can do to score at that point in time."
On the gameplan:
"Santa Clara's a team that's scored more goals than we have, they've given up fewer goals than we have, and we had to travel all this way again to play the game. In our minds and in our hearts we feel like we need to make sure that we need to defend, keep ourselves in the game, so we put numbers behind the goal and try to do that and keep the score close, and we felt good that we were 0-0 at halftime. I think that was a good accomplishment for our players and we had some confidence, and then one call and a free kick and now you're down a goal. At that point in time we throw caution to the wind and we have to go forward now. Our game plan was to stay in the game and keep it close. I think we were very unlucky not to score a goal ourselves tonight."
OHIO STATE FORWARD KEVIN NUGENT:
On the game:
"I just want to say that Santa Clara's a great team, we knew it would be a great match-up and a hard-fought game. One mistake right around the 18-yard box, we knew we couldn't give up those kinds of mistakes and unfortunately we did. It was just a great free kick and there wasn't a whole lot we could do about it."
"We knew coming out here it would be tough with the climate and the time change, it's hard to get adjusted and I wouldn't say we were happy at halftime, but we were content with how we played in the first half, we thought we played well. I think we maybe relaxed too much at the start of the second half, letting them get forward and then maybe being a little bit lazy on our defense in giving up that penalty but that's just unfortunate that we couldn't stay on top of that first three minutes of the half."
On the last five minutes of the match:
"We've been in this situation a couple times this year and there have been times where we have come back and many games that we were down. It kind of just felt like we knew what we were going to do, we knew the gameplan. If we were down a goal, not to panic, do anything we can to get a goal, bring our numbers up but unfortunately there were I would say three good chances where we could have but just didn't put it in the back of the net."
SANTA CLARA HEAD COACH Cameron Rast:
On the game:
"Tonight it's a tough match with Ohio State, it's a team that's won a couple games in the tournament and has a bunch of talented players that came out and were motivated to win the game like every team will be. For us, with our finish in the regular season it was important for us to really bear down and play tough and gritty, and really grind a game out and not give too many chances away and sink the ones that we get. I think we did that tonight, we were sharp when we really needed to be and a little lucky at the end when we needed to be.
On the last five minutes of the match:
"I think our goal was really to keep them under as much pressure as possible and make sure they didn't get a lot of free chances, and even the ones that were bouncing in the box were about as dangerous as could be. I think we tried to get somebody throwing their body at it, and I think that's a little bit of the college game, it's a little bit of excitement and a finish to a tough battle. For us we're gonna have to scrap it out and tonight we did. They made it difficult enough for Ohio State as we were able to get the goal."
On Tuesday's game against Cal:
"We're looking forward to that game, we're looking forward to hopefully a lot of games in November. The Cal game for us is a familiar opponent, one that we play every year, one that we haven't had a lot of success with and we're looking to change that. The way we're going to do that is we're going to come out and be sharp and ready, and try to keep them under pressure and create our chances which I think we're going to be able to do. I think we're going to be able to create chances, it's a matter of finishing, and I think that's true of any team in the playoffs. I think the best part for us is with our finish, it was important for us to play a game and it was important for us to play a playoff game and get a good result. Tonight was just that for us, it refocuses our team, gives us a bit of confidence going into that match and that is critical for our mindset in playing a quality team like Cal."
SANTA CLARA MIDFIELDER Peter Lowry:
On the game:
"Coach told us after the game that the first one is really the most difficult and that it was going to be a grind and we knew they had some good results against good teams coming in and they were going to play us really hard. I thought that we stepped up and really matured a lot from earlier this season to get good performances and good results from the guys."
On his goal off of the free kick:
"In high school I was known for my free kicks and I come to college and I haven't really hit very many, I think I've scored two over the last two years, so I've been kind of practicing this week on some of them, and just kind of feeling good about hitting them."
"That's usually the best place to hit it, the goalie's on the other side of the goal and he sets his wall up on that near post, so you've got to get it over the wall and you have to dip it in hard. If you can get it to swing away from the goalie into that off-side it's a tough one to save."
SANTA CLARA GOALKEEPER Kevin Sweeney:
On the game:
"After a disappointing last four games, not giving up any goals in October and then we didn't win in November, it's just kind of a hard turn for us, but our guys stuck it out today and really focused and tuned in and our defense did an amazing job and just played hard to the end. I think we've got the momentum going now and we're back on track."
On facing the last Ohio State rush:
"When they're pushing so hard it gets a little tense and guys are really on edge back there. Sometimes the ball bounces your way and tonight for us it did."
