MILWAUKEE, Wis. – Lukas Sunesson scored in the 95th minute as the Northern Illinois University men's soccer team fell to Marquette, 1-0, in the regular season opener on Sunday afternoon (Feb. 7) in the bubble at Valley Fields. 

"It is obviously disappointing, especially to lose it in that fashion," said NIU head coach Ryan Swan. "We had a lot of good opportunities, their keeper made a couple of good saves, we hit the post. We just didn't come out sharp enough in the overtime period and Marquette went on to score a good goal, it is a frustrating was to lose it."

NIU's first attempt on target came in the 10th minute as senior Alex Welch (Carmarthen, Wales/King's College Madrid) forced an early save from the Marquette goalkeeper Chandler Hallwood. 

The Golden Eagles generated four corners in the opening 20 minutes, none of which forced a save from Huskie sophomore goalkeeper Martin Sanchez (Bloomington, Minn./Kennedy). 

Junior Roque Viegas Jr. (Sao Paulo, Brazil/Syracuse) forced another save from Hallwood in the 22nd minute and two minutes later junior Nick Markanich (Bourbonnais, Ill./Bradley-Bourbonnais) headed just wide from a corner as the match remained scoreless. 

Marquette forced the first save of the match from Sanchez in the 27th minute as Sunesson made his way into the six-yard box and Sanchez was able to scramble the ball away for the Golden Eagle corner. 

The best chance of the opening 45 minutes fell to Markanich six minutes before the break as he collected a ball that was bouncing around in the box and whistled a low shot on target, but Hallwood was up to the task as the contest went into the intermission scoreless. 

Marquette (2-0) had the first look at goal after the interval as Sunesson was all alone in the box but headed wide in the 47th minute. 

NIU (0-1) had a great chance on the hour mark as Markanich's initial shot was deflected and fell to Viegas Jr. near the top of the six but the Brazilian fired his shot high. 

With a quarter-hour to play, Markanich was again involved as he nearly opened the scoring, hitting a shot across the face of the goal and off the back post. The last good opportunity to break the deadlock in regulation also fell to the Huskies as junior Miguel Maynez Jr. (El Paso, Texas/New Mexico) had a shot from the top of the 18 that was tipped away by Marquette substitute goalkeeper Cedrik Stern. 

Just over four minutes into the extra period, Marquette had the ball in the back of the net, but the Golden Eagles were called offside. Less than minute later, Alan Salmeron played a ball from the back into the path of Alex Mirsberger down the right side, Mirsberger's low cross was met by Sunesson who finished from inside the six to give Marquette its second consecutive overtime win to open the season. 

Sanchez finished with three saves for the Huskies; Hallwood made four stops and Stern had one save in relief for the Golden Eagles. 

"I think there is a lot of positives," said Swan. "We played well for large stretches of the game, we managed to breakdown a very good team and get really good looks on goal. We went 90 minutes with a shutout, we created four or five really good opportunities, that should be enough to win the game, so there are a lot of positives to take from today."

NIU will return to action next Sunday, February 14, when the Huskies meet Loyola Chicago at The Indoor Sports Center at Mercyhealth Sportscore Two in Rockford. Kickoff against the Ramblers is scheduled for 1 p.m.