PORTLAND, Ore. – The Northern Illinois University men's soccer team hit the crossbar and the post inside the opening 25 minutes, but Portland scored on two of its first three shots on target as the Pilots earned a 4-0 victory over the 15th-ranked Huskies on Wednesday night (Nov. 3) at Merlo Field. The setback ends NIU's school-record 13-match unbeaten streak as the Huskies fall to 12-2-2, Portland improves to 9-5-1 with the victory.
"The result was probably a fair reflection of the game," said NIU head coach
Ryan Swan. "Portland were better than us tonight, almost everywhere. It was a poor outing from us and obviously that is a big disappointment, both in the way that I prepared the team and in the way that we came out and performed today.
NIU had the first chance of the contest on the counter in the sixth minute as
Nick Markanich (Bourbonnais, Ill./Bradley-Bourbonnais) fired a shot off the crossbar from near the top of the 18-yard box.
In the 14th minute,
Roque Viegas Jr. (Sao Paulo, Brazil/Portland) had a look at goal from just outside the box that was fought off at the near post by Portland goalkeeper George Tasouris.
Portland opened the scoring two minutes later on a goal by Jacob Babalai. Jake Arteaga played a ball wide into the run of Kevin Bonilla and his low cross from the right side found the run of Babalai inside the six-yard box, giving NIU goalkeeper
Martin Sanchez (Bloomington, Minn./Kennedy) no chance, as the Pilots took the lead after just over a quarter of an hour.
The Huskies hit the bar again in the 22nd minute as
Malcolm Ward's (Youngs, Australia/Newington College) cross came all the way across the box to
Enrique Banuelos (Mexico City, Mexico) all alone about 10 yards from goal on the opposite side, but Banuelos' effort hit the bottom of the post and bounced out of play for a goal kick.
Portland doubled its advantage in the 34th minute on a goal by Wesley Frankel. John Atem Kato slipped a ball into the feet of Frankel from the right side as Frankel had gotten just in behind the NIU defense and he slotted a shot past Sanchez to give the hosts a 2-0 lead that they would take into halftime.
In the 53rd minute, NIU had an opportunity as Markanich fired a low ball across the Portland six-yard box, but it was just poked away by the Pilots defense before
Zachariah Thomas (Burnaby, British Columbia/Moscrop Secondary) could finish at the back post.
Portland added a third on the hour mark as Frankel dispossessed a Huskie defender inside the NIU box and deflected the ball to Kato who made to mistake, giving the Pilots a 3-0 advantage.
In the 77th minute, after both teams had made several substitutions, the Pilots added a fourth as Buba Fofanah created a turnover and played the ball to Alejandro Pereira who fed a low cross back to Fofanah all alone inside the six to add another goal for the hosts.
"After Saturday's excitement, this was always going to have a different feel to it," said Swan. "We knew this was an important game for Portland, and for ourselves. I certainly didn't think we came out with the same energy and excitement as we had the last couple of conference games."
Up next for NIU will be the Mid-American Conference Tournament next week in DeKalb. The semifinals are scheduled for Thursday, Nov. 11, with the Huskies set to face the fourth seed in the second game at 6 p.m. The remaining seeds for next week's tournament will be set following tomorrow's conclusion to conference play.
