MEMPHIS, Tenn. – The Northern Illinois University men's soccer team suffered a 5-1 setback at Memphis on Thursday night (Aug. 29). Taylor Davis (Wichita Falls, Texas/Wichita Falls) scored the lone goal for the Huskies in the contest. 

"We knew this was going to be a game where transition was going to be huge," said NIU head coach Ryan Swan. "We thought that might work in our favor, we thought there would be a lot of turnovers in the game and we could never take advantage of that. We the exception of the opening 10 minutes of each half, we were punished in the transitional side of the game. We gave the ball away too cheaply.

"All credit to Memphis, they know exactly who they are and what they want to do, and they were very effective at that. There was no real identity to our team today and we got punished for every mistake."

NIU (1-2-0) was on the front-foot in the early going as Zachariah Thomas (Burnaby, British Columbia) had a pair of chances to open the scoring. The senior had a shot from a tight angle just before the quarter-hour mark that forced a kick save from Memphis goalkeeper Filip Sabatti and, two minutes later, following a quick restart, Thomas forced another save from Sabatti on a shot from just outside the box. 

Memphis (1-2-0) grabbed more control of the contest as the half went on and the Tigers took the lead on the half-hour mark. A corner from Lleyton Imparato was floated to the back post where Logan Longo nodded a header toward Lucho Galizzi whose diving header was tucked just inside the post to give the hosts a 1-0 lead. 

Six minutes later, Memphis doubled its advantage as the Tigers won a free kick in a dangerous position just over 20 yards from goal. Imparato's initial shot from the free kick was blocked by the NIU wall, but the rebound fell right back to Imparato whose second attempt took a deflection to beat NIU goalkeeper Caleb Pearson (Fort Worth, Texas/LD Bell), giving the Tigers a 2-0 advantage at the interval. 

A deflection nearly gave NIU a goal in the 57th minute as Tom Dahlin (Stockholm, Sweden/Danderyds Gymnasium) whipped in a cross that cross deflected off a Memphis defender just past the post and out for a corner.

Three minutes later, Memphis added a third as Konstantinos Marneros and Sebastian Schmalback combined on a one-two inside the Huskie box with Marneros cutting to the penalty spot before blasting a shot into the upper corner to give the Tigers a 3-0 lead. 

NIU pulled a goal back in the 70th minute as a low cross from William Mugisha (Salt Lake City, Utah/Utah State Eastern) on the right side went all the way through to the edge of the six on the far side. Davis swept a shot back across the face of goal and inside the post to bring the Huskies back within a pair. 

Just 26 seconds later, Memphis answered as a low shot from Adam Yousfi from just outside the box found the corner of the net to restore the three-goal lead for the home side. 

Memphis added a fifth in the closing minutes as a shot from Cory Pitlik was redirected by Longo past Pearson from the top of the six-yard box. 

Pearson finished with seven saves in goal for the Huskies, Sabatti recorded four stops between the posts for the Tigers. 

NIU will return home on Sunday, Sept. 1, as the Huskies host Green Bay at 1 p.m. at the NIU Soccer Complex. Admission to all Huskie soccer matches is free of charge.