DEKALB, Ill. – Harry Jolley (Liverpool, England/St. Margaret Academy) scored a pair of goals as the Northern Illinois University men's soccer team topped Purdue Northwest, 5-3, in its final exhibition game on Friday afternoon (Aug. 20) at the NIU Soccer Complex. Anthony Markanich (Bourbonnais, Ill./Bradley-Bourbonnais), Nick Markanich (Bourbonnais, Ill./Bradley-Bourbonnais) and Kevin Galiano (Lynden, Wash./Meridian) also tallied for the Huskies in the victory.  

"There were some good moments but as the game went on, I thought that our focus went a little bit," said NIU head coach Ryan Swan. "Fair play to Purdue Northwest, they scored a couple of nice goals, but I think when we look at the video, we are going to be disappointed with some of our defending. There is a lot of work to be done by Thursday (the regular season opener), but at the same time we created and scored a lot of goals today, so we will take the positives out and clean up the things that weren't so good."

Jolley opened the scoring in the 18th minute, heading home of free kick from Roque Viegas Jr. (Sao Paulo, Brazil/Syracuse). 

After Isaiah Nieves levelled the contest for Purdue Northwest, Jolley added a second in the 26th, hooking home the second ball off a corner to put the Huskies back in front. 

Nieves evened the contest again before the Huskies added a third in the 37th minute. Anthony Markanich swept home a low cross from Eddie Knight (Frisco, Texas/Lone Star) to give the Huskies a 3-2 lead at the intermission. 

Just over five minutes after halftime, Galiano doubled NIU's advantage as he got on the end of cross from Roland Dearborn (Bethpage, N.Y./Dundee Crown) with a back post header to give the Huskies a 4-2 lead. 

A penalty kick from Nieves brought Purdue Northwest back within a goal, 4-3, on the hour mark. Nick Markanich then added NIU's fifth of the contest as he powered a shot from a tight angle passed the Purdue Northwest goalkeeper, from a cross by Dearborn, to close the scoring in the 90 minutes, giving NIU the 5-3 victory. 

The Huskies and Pride agreed to play an additional 20 minutes to build match fitness and Malcolm Ward (Youngs, Australia/Newington College) scored in the bonus period for NIU. 

"I'm looking forward to playing a proper game, where we can be focused more on the result," said Swan of closing the preseason and looking ahead to the regular season. "I feel good about where we are at, and I know the guys are hungry and ready to play, but now we have identified some things today that are issues for us, so that gives us a focal point of things we have to clean up. We are excited about getting that done and getting the team to where they need to be."

NIU now turns its attention toward the regular season opener on Thursday, Aug. 26, when the Huskies host Purdue Fort Wayne. Kickoff is scheduled 2 p.m.