DEKALB, Ill. – The Northern Illinois University men's soccer team closes the exhibition portion of its schedule with a 3-1 setback against Drake on Sunday afternoon at the NIU Soccer Complex. Junior Giovanni Garcia (Chicago, Ill./Elk Grove) scored for the Huskies as they wrapped up their three-game preseason slate.

"Anytime you give up multiple goals you are going to be disappointed," said NIU head coach Eric Luzzi. "So that part stings a little bit. Outside of that, today was what was needed, we needed to see what areas we are strong in and what areas we still have to work on. On the whole, there were a lot of positives today, on both sides of the ball.

"Drake is a very good team and they punished us on a couple of our mistakes and in a couple of areas that we know we have to cleanup. It's preseason, so I would rather be punished for those things to help make the point to our guys about the areas where we have to be better."

Freshman Christian Molina (Katy, Texas/Mayde Creek) had the first chance of the contest as he forced a save from Drake goalkeeper, Darrin MacLeod, inside the first quarter of an hour of the contest. Molina cut inside from the wing and tested MacLeod from about 15 yards, forcing him to get down low to make the save.

The Huskies broke the deadlock in the 26th minute on a goal from Garcia. Molina created the initial opportunity and his shot was stopped by MacLeod but the rebound fell to Garcia who finished from inside the six-yard box to give the Huskies a 1-0 lead.

Nine minutes later, Drake evened the game, 1-1. Steven Enna played a diagonal ball from near midfield to Nic Jaimes on the left side and he finished from near the top of the box past NIU junior Drew Donnally (Plainfield, Ill./Plainfield North) in the 35th minute; the game went to the intermission tied, 1-1.

After halftime, neither team created much in the way of chances early in the second half until Drake broke the deadlock in the 64th minute. A foul just about 25 yards from goal gave the Bulldogs a free kick and James Wypych found the upper corner directly from the free kick past NIU freshman Christoph Koninger (Achern, Germany/Gymnasium Achern) to give Drake a 2-1 lead.

The Bulldogs doubled their advantage in the 76th minute as Ryan Merideth beat Koninger to a loose ball near the top of the box and slotted it into the vacated net to give Drake a 3-1 advantage.

With its exhibition slate wrapped up, NIU will begin to prepare for the regular season opener on Friday, Aug. 26, at SIU Edwardsville. Game time against the Cougars is scheduled for 7 p.m.

Scoring Summary:
NIU – Giovanni Garcia (26th minute)
Drake – Nic Jaimes (35th minute)
Drake – James Wypych (64th minute)
Drake – Ryan Merideth (76th minute)