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Brad Horton scored Northern Illinois' goal in a 2-1 loss to Western Michigan, Wednesday.

Men's Soccer

Huskie Come Up Short in Tale of Two Halves

Nov. 4, 2009

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DeKALB - The Northern Illinois men's soccer team took a 1-0 lead and controlled the majority of the first half, but allowed two second half goals in a 2-1 loss to Western Michigan Wednesday at the NIU Soccer and Track & Field Complex.

Sophomore Brad Horton (Sycamore, Ill./Sycamore) scored to put Northern Illinois ahead in the 27th minute. Midfielder Luis De La Cerda (Aurora, Ill./Waubonsie Valley) got the play started with a long pass to senior Ben Thomas (Hamilton, Ohio/Fairfield) , who tried to chip the WMU goalkeeper. Bronco netminder Casey Aubil came off his line to meet Thomas, and deflected the try. But the ball went right to the feet of an active Horton, who touched it into to an open net for his sixth goal of the season.

With the result, the Huskies (10-7-1, 3-3-0 Mid-American Conference) will enter the Mid-American Conference Tournament as the No. 4 seed. Northern Illinois will take on undefeated Akron, the consensus No. 1 team in the nation, in the conference semifinal Nov. 13.

Northern Illinois dominated the first half of play against the Broncos (6-8-1, 3-1-1 MAC), outshooting WMU 16-3 and generating multiple chances to score. Western Michigan bounced back in the second half, as Saeed Salemana Baba evened things in the 64th minute and Kai Mendes scored the game-winning tally in the 74th.

Part of Western Michigan's success on offense in the second half came from generating five corner kicks in the period. The Huskies totaled just three for match, with one in the second half.

Northern Illinois will look ahead to their match against the 16-0-0 Zips, who still have two games remaining in their regular season. The Huskies played Akron as close as anyone has this season, losing 1-0 on a late goal in mid-October.

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