DEKALB, Ill. – The Northern Illinois University men's soccer team hit the crossbar twice but was unable to find a breakthrough as the Huskies fell to Bowling Green, 1-0, on Saturday night at the NIU Soccer Complex. 

"Full credit to Bowling Green, they are a very organized team and they take advantage of the chances they create, they are very efficient in that way," said NIU head coach Eric Luzzi. "From our perspective, 85-90 percent of what we did was very good. We have many good individual performances, created chances, hit the crossbar twice, just missed the post a couple of times. Collectively, as a group, we did almost everything right other than score a goal."

Bowling Green (9-4-2, 2-0-1 MAC) had the first look at goal in the 16th minute as Joe Sullivan tested NIU goalkeeper Drew Donnally (Plainfield, Ill./Plainfield North) but Donnally was easily able to make the save. 

A mistake by Bowling Green goalkeeper Anthony Mwembia led to a great chance for the Huskies in the 22nd minute as freshman Christian Molina (Katy, Texas/Mayde Creek) collected a giveaway from Mwembia about 25 yards from goal but rang his shot toward the empty frame off the crossbar as the game remained scoreless. 

Just before the half-hour mark, Donnally made an excellent save at full stretch on a shot from Pat Flynn to keep the game deadlocked, 0-0. 

Three minutes before halftime, Donnally was called upon again to make a terrific save on Chris Brennan who had snuck behind the NIU backline as the Huskies and Falcons went into halftime tied. 

In the 54th minute, NIU created an excellent opportunity as sophomore Kevin Rodriguez (Pasadena, Texas/Deer Park) setup sophomore Max Voss (Huls, Germany/ Staedtisches Gymnasium Herten) for a shot that just missed the right post. 

Two minutes later the Falcons were in front. Tate Robertson played a long, deep cross to the back post where Bismark Agyeman found himself all alone inside the six-yard box. Agyeman slotted a shot past Donnally to give Bowling Green a 1-0 lead. 

NIU (1-9-4, 0-2-1 MAC) responded to the Bowling Green goal by continuing to apply pressure to the Falcon defense. In the 63rd minute, a corner kick from senior Richard Hall (Billericay, England/The Billericay School) fell to junior Luke Read (Ilford, England/Barking Abbey School) whose shot was just tipped away by Mwembia for another corner. 

In the 76th minute, following another long spell of possession for the Huskies, junior Jerome Roche (Salon-de-Provence, France/Gardner-Webb) struck a 25-yard shot that was bending away from the Bowling Green goalkeeper but thundered off the underside of the crossbar and stayed out. 

The Huskies continued to press for the equalizer but Bowling Green was able to preserve the clean sheet as the Falcons earned a 1-0 road victory. 

NIU will hit the road for its final conference match away from home next Friday, Oct. 28, as the Huskies travel to Buffalo.