DEKALB, Ill. – Two goals in the opening 91 seconds of the contest helped lead the Northern Illinois University men's soccer team to a 5-1 victory over Eastern Illinois on Tuesday night (Oct. 8) at the NIU Soccer Complex. Sophomore Miguel Maynez Jr. (El Paso, Texas/New Mexico) scored a pair of goals while junior Alex Welch (Carmarthen, Wales/King's College Madrid) added a goal and an assist as the Huskies scored three in the opening quarter-hour to race past the Panthers.

NIU's five goals is the most scored by a Huskie team since November 4, 2010, when the Huskies defeated Milwaukee, 5-1. 

"It is huge when you can beat (Eastern Illinois') resistance early," said NIU head coach Ryan Swan of the fast start. "We knew that they are a good defensive team, they have shutout a lot of teams this year. Getting those (goals) early, they have to change the way they play and that helps us, it is certainly a positive thing."

It took NIU just 33 seconds to open the scoring as Eastern Illinois had the kickoff to open the game and played the ball around in its own half until a turnover near the end line. Senior Jan Maertins (Rheinfelden, Germany/Marquette) pounced on the turnover and fed Maynez Jr. who was all alone inside the box and fired past Eastern Illinois goalkeeper Jonathan Burke to give the Huskies an early lead. 

Less than a minute later the Huskies doubled their advantage as Maertins played a low cross from the left side into the box to sophomore Nick Markanich (Bourbonnais, Ill./Bradley-Bourbonnais) who swept home a second goal through the legs of Burke as the Huskies led 2-0 inside two minutes. 

The wild start continued as Eastern Illinois (4-6-1) cut the NIU lead in half in the third minute. After a foul on the Huskies about 35 yards from goal, Nate Francke clipped the free kick up toward the back post where Shady Omar powered a header back across goal and into the net to bring the Panthers back within a goal. 

Just before the quarter-hour mark NIU restored its two-goal advantage as Maynez scored his second of the contest. The sophomore transfer from New Mexico looked up from about 25 yards and whistled a shot across goal and past Burke to give the Huskies a 3-1 lead in the 15th minute. 

NIU (5-6-1) found the back of the net again with its fourth shot of the contest in the 21st minute as sophomore Anthony Markanich (Bourbonnais, Ill./Bradley-Bourbonnais) gave the Huskies a three-goal lead. The ball was swung across the field from right-to-left where it found the feet of Welch, who played it on into the path of Anthony Markanich for a rocket into the upper corner from near the top of the box as the Huskies took a 4-1 lead, an advantage they would take into the intermission. 

In the 57th minute, Welch added a fifth for the Huskies. With the ball in space outside the box, Welch hit a dipping shot that skipped off the turf just in front of goal and past Burke to close the scoring. 

Burke finished the contest with three saves in goal for Eastern Illinois; redshirt freshman Martin Sanchez (Bloomington, Minn./Kennedy) made four saves between the sticks for NIU. 

"It was important that we got the right response after the Saint Mary's game," said Swan. "I think the guys will be feeling pretty good again, but conference games are a different thing all together. The next five games are going to be really tough, SIUE is a good team."

NIU will begin Mid-American Conference play on Saturday afternoon, October 12, when the Huskies welcome SIU Edwardsville to DeKalb. Kickoff against the Cougars is slated for 2 p.m.