ANNAPOLIS, Md. – Despite controlling the play and leading in every statistical category, the Northern Illinois University men's soccer team suffered a 2-0 defeat on the road at Navy on Friday night at the Glenn Warner Soccer Facility.

"Give full credit to Navy," said NIU head coach Eric Luzzi. "They were very opportunistic, they finished the chances they created and once they went up they did a good job to manage the game. That being said, I thought on the whole our guys were fantastic. We played the vast majority of the game in their half, we created a large number of chances.

"The number of times we missed the post by less than 12 inches was unbelievable. I told the guys that they should be angry with the result, but not at all disappointed in the performance. Now we have to have the right response on Sunday, UMBC is a good team and we play them in 36 hours."

NIU (0-2-1) had the first chance of the night as senior Richard Hall (Billericay, England/The Billericay School) got forward and had a chance. After overlapping with the Huskies in possession, Hall found himself on the end of a ball in the box and put his chance just wide in the ninth minute

Navy (1-1-1) came right back and had a chance just a minute later as Piroz Bahar whistled a low shot just wide of goal.

In the 19th minute, senior Cody Witkowski (Batavia, Ill./Batavia) just missed opening the scoring as his effort from near the top of the box went just wide as we remained scoreless.

Sophomore Max Voss (Huls, Germany/Staedtisches Gymnasium Herten) then nearly opened the scoring in the 22nd minute. After a foul gave the Huskies a free kick about 30 yards from goal, Voss stepped up and saw his chance just tipped away as it looked destined for the top corner of the goal.

Following a good spell of possession for the Huskies, Navy opened the scoring in the 26th minute against the run of play. A run from midfield helped open up play in the box and, after an initial chance for Daniel Zaremba was cleared off the line, Zaremba got his own rebound and fired into the net to give the Midshipmen a 1-0 lead.

The Huskies continued to have the better of the possession after the goal, senior Albert Levett (Southend-on-Sea, England/Belfairs High) and sophomore Nixon Urrutia (Houston, Texas/Dobie) each had a chance blocked as NIU looked for a break through. Navy created another chance in the 43rd minute when Daniel Kwon missed wide from a tight angle as the Midshipmen took a 1-0 lead into the intermission.

Navy doubled its advantage just two minutes after halftime. Diego Manrique made a run down the wing and crossed a ball beyond the back post but Alex Evans was able to head it back into a dangerous position where Aubrey Jones was there for the finish as the Midshipmen took a 2-0 lead.

NIU enjoyed the majority of the possession after the goal, much as they had throughout the first half.

In the 68th minute, sophomore Kevin Rodriguez Pasadena, Texas/Pasadena) whipped in an excellent cross toward sophomore Noah Brodie (Scottsdale, Ariz./Carbondale Community) but the NIU target man was just unable to redirect it on frame as the Huskies continued to chase the two-goal Navy advantage.

The Huskies continued pushing as Voss had a chance in the 76th minute. After a good bit of combination play between sophomore Nicholas Haas (Waukegan, Ill./Warren Township) and Rodriguez, the chance came to Voss whose shot was right at Navy goalkeeper Mac Burke.

NIU will conclude its four-game road trip to begin the season on Sunday, Sept. 4, as the Huskies meeting Maryland-Baltimore County at 3 p.m. CT.