DEKALB, Ill. – An 84th minute goal helped 14th-ranked Western Michigan edge the Northern Illinois University men's soccer team, 2-1, on Saturday afternoon (Oct. 12) at the NIU Soccer Complex. Sam Divis (Noblesville, Ind./Noblesville) evened the game for the Huskies with his first career goal before the late Bronco tally helped extend Western Michigan's unbeaten streak to 34 matches. 

"The guys stuck to the gameplan, and the work rate was good," said NIU head coach Ryan Swan. "We put ourselves in a position to get something out of this game, but Western Michigan, all credit to them, they are unbeaten, 14th in the country, and a lot of that is belief. They kept working to the end, put balls into dangerous areas and I think that was the difference between the two teams, the end product in the final third, I thought theirs was just a bit better than ours."

NIU (2-10-0, 0-4-0 MVC) started the contest on the front-foot, but it was the visitors that opened the scoring in the 14th minute. 

The Broncos earned a free kick about 25 yards from goal and the right-footed shot from Braxton Arpachinda took a deflection off the end of the Huskie wall, giving NIU goalkeeper Caleb Pearson (Fort Worth, Texas/LD Bell) no chance as he was wrong-footed and the ball bounced into the back of the net. 

In the 23rd minute, Kevin Kelly (Dublin, Ireland/St. Joseph Rush) had a chance off a quick throw-in, firing just wide of the near post. 

Just before the half-hour mark, Western Michigan earned another free kick, this one about 30 yards from goal, and Pearson easily scooped up the long shot from Christian Shannon. 

In the 34th minute, a Western Michigan turnover led to a chance for the Huskies as Zachariah Thomas (Burnaby, British Columbia/Moscrop Secondary) found Jose Gomez (Roatan, Honduras/Clarke University) who whistled a shot just over the crossbar from 20 yards out. 

Western Michigan (8-0-5, 2-0-3 MVC) had a shot in the final minute of the half that was comfortably held by Pearson as the Broncos took a 1-0 lead into the interval. 

Pearson made an outstanding save less than two minutes into the second half as Western Michigan clipped a cross to the back post to Greyson Mercer. Pearson scrambled across the box and smothered the header from point blank range to keep the Huskies within a goal. 

Divis pulled the Huskies level in the 68th minute. Western Michigan played a pass back to the feet of goalkeeper Colin Welsh who tried to cut around Divis, but the Huskie sophomore poked the ball away from the Bronco goalkeeper and tapped it into an empty net to tie the game at one with just over 20 minutes left. 

NIU nearly went in front four minutes later as a free kick from Tom Dahlin (Stockholm, Sweden/ Danderyds Gymnasium) forced a save from Welsh. 

Entering the final 10 minutes, Western Michigan sent numerous crosses into the NIU box, hoping to use its size advantage to find a winning goal. 

The Broncos found a winner in the 84th minute when Ronan Wilcox whipped a ball from the edge of the 18-yard box inside the six that took a deflection off a Huskie defender into the net to help give Western Michigan the victory. 

NIU will return to action on Homecoming Saturday night, Oct. 19, as the Huskies host Evansville. Kickoff against the Purple Aces is scheduled for 7 p.m.