DEKALB, Ill. – The Northern Illinois University men's soccer team will play its final regular season home game on Saturday night, Oct. 21, when the Huskies host the newest member of the Mid-American Conference, SIU Edwardsville. Game time against the Cougars is scheduled for 6 p.m.
Prior to the match, NIU will honor its four seniors,
Drew Donnally (Plainfield, Ill./Plainfield North),
Giovanni Garcia (Chicago, Ill./Elk Grove),
Luke Read (Ilford, England/Barking Abbey School) and
Jerome Roche (Salon-de-Provence, France/Gardner-Webb), playing their final home match.
NIU (3-8-1, 0-1-1 MAC) returns to action after suffering home setback last weekend against 13th-ranked Western Michigan. Sophomore
Jan Maertins (Rheinfelden, Germany/Georg-Buechner Gym) continues to lead the Huskies in scoring with four goals and nine points.
The Cougars come to NIU with a 6-7-1 overall record, 1-1 in league play. SIUE opened conference action with a 3-1 home win over Bowling Green (Oct. 7) before falling 3-1 last weekend (Oct. 13) at Akron. Jorge Gonzalez leads the Cougars offensively with five goals and 12 points, Kyle Dal Santo has played all 14 matches in goal, he has a 0.97 goals against average and a .741 save percentage. Last season, SIUE advanced to the third round of the NCAA Tournament.
SIUE is in its first season playing men's soccer in the MAC, having joined the conference from the Missouri Valley after winning the MVC Tournament a season ago. The Cougars take the place of Buffalo who dropped its men's soccer program following last season.
Although the Cougars are a newcomer to the MAC, they are not a stranger to NIU, having met 21 times previously, including two of the last three seasons. The two schools met last year in the season opener in Edwardsville (Aug. 26, 2016), playing to a 1-1 draw;
Max Voss (Herten, Germany/Staedtisches Gymnasium Herten) scored NIU's goal in the 17th minute off an assist from
Christian Molina (Katy, Texas/Mayde Creek).
The Huskies will return to the road next weekend when the travel to Bowling Green on Saturday, Oct. 28. Game time against the Falcons is scheduled for 6 p.m. CT.
