Aug. 17, 2008

Box Score

Box Score in PDF Format

CHICAGO - The Northern Illinois men's soccer team opened its exhibition season, Sunday, with a 1-0 loss to DePaul.

Despite the score, sixth-year head coach Steve Simmons said he got what he wanted out of the match.

"We're disappointed with the result because we always want to win, but I've got a handle on what we need to do this week and we're looking forward to training," he said.

Simmons played nearly his entire roster, including seven newcomers.

"Obviously we got to play everyone that was able to play, which was one of my goals for this game," Simmons said. "We started different line-ups in each half, and we were able to see a lot of things that we wanted to see."

The Huskies, who host Marquette in an exhibition Aug. 22 at 7 p.m., took four shots in the match, two of which were on target and all of which came in the second half.

"Our last 20-25 minutes was the best part of our game, for certain," Simmons said. "We were taking it to them, and that was what we needed to do from the get go."

The Blue Demons scored the match's only goal in the 54th minute, as Willy Lara used a free kick to find Matt Leinauer for the score.

Northern Illinois opens the regular season, Aug. 29, when it faces IUPUI at the Northwestern Lakeside Classic in Evanston, Ill.