DEKALB, Ill. – After opening the season with four consecutive games away from home, the Northern Illinois University men's soccer team will welcome Purdue Fort Wayne to the NIU Soccer Complex on Friday night for its home opener at 8 p.m. The contest will be the second game of a doubleheader with the NIU women's soccer team hosting Green Bay at 6 p.m.
Friday night is Diversity and Inclusion Night and the first 40 NIU students who show their OneCard will receive a free meal courtesy of the NIU Office of Academic Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.
"It is always good to be on your home field, especially after being on the road for four consecutive games," said NIU head coach
Ryan Swan. "We are excited about it, the guys are excited and we are ready to get out there in front of our home crowd."
The Huskies are coming off a weekend split at the Rio Grande Valley Invitational, defeating Houston Baptist, 1-0, before falling to Texas Rio Grande Valley, 3-2. Senior
Kevin Rodriguez (Pasadena, Texas/Deer Park) scored the lone goal in NIU's victory over Houston Baptist while sophomore
Alex Welch (Carmarthen, Wales/King's College Madrid) and senior
Noah Brodie (Scottsdale, Ariz./Carbondale Community) found the back of the net against UTRGV.
Freshmen
Anthony Markanich (Bourbonnais, Ill./Bradley-Bourbonnais) and
Adrian Corona (Plainfield, Ill./Plainfield Central) were named to the RGV Invitational All-Tournament Team.
Offensively, Rodriguez and freshmen
Nick Markanich (Bourbonnais, Ill./Bradley-Bourbonnais) are each leading the way for the Huskies with four points, tied for fourth in the MAC.
"We have scored six goals in the first four games, so it has been a promising start, we also have two shutouts," said Swan. "Every game so far this year we have outshot our opponent, so we are creating chances and it is an exciting team to watch. We are young and in some games we have made the mistakes that young teams are going to make, but we are getting better with every training session and every game."
Purdue Fort Wayne comes to DeKalb with a 3-1 record after also traveling to the Rio Grande Valley Invitational this past weekend. The Mastodons earned a 3-1 victory over UTRGV and a 4-3 overtime win over Houston Baptist to take the tournament title. Matthew Lieshout leads Purdue Fort Wayne with five goals while Tor Erik Larsen has played in all four matches in goal, posting a 1.94 goals against average.
Following Friday's home opener, the Huskies will be back home again on Wednesday night, Sept. 12, as they host Western Illinois. Kickoff for Wednesday's match is scheduled for 7 p.m.
