DEKALB, Ill. – Despite conceding first and playing down a man for the final 35 minutes, the Northern Illinois University men's soccer team defeated Notre Dame, 2-1, on Tuesday night (Oct. 21) at the NIU Soccer Complex. Vance Sheffield (West Linn, Ore./La Salle Catholic College Prep) equalized for the Huskies in the 27th minute and, while playing with 10-men, Martin Montoya (Hinsdale, Ill./Hinsdale Central) won it for the Huskies with a goal in the 64th minute.

"Delighted obviously with the result, but the performance, the work rate and the attitude from our guys today was just fantastic," said NIU head coach Ryan Swan. "We got off to a bright start and then Notre Dame, as good teams do, took control of the game for a little bit and scored a nice goal. 

"Our response was fantastic. It was a really good match, when we got the red card, it would have been easy for the guys to use that as an excuse that things were going against us, but they stuck to their jobs, everyone was fantastic, and it was a tremendous finish from Martin (Montoya) to get the result for us."

With the win, the Huskies are now unbeaten in their last six matches, the program's longest unbeaten streak since 2021 when they went 13 matches without a loss (Sept. 4-Oct. 30, 2021). 

NIU (6-3-4) could have gone in front after just six minutes as Sheffield played a ball into the box for Katai Mukuka (Lusaka, Zambia) whose shot from an angle was well held by Notre Dame goalkeeper Blake Kelly. 

The visitors scored first as Noal Spicer found the back of the net in the 13th minute. Following a good spell of possession Wyatt Lewis played a ball into Luke Burton whose deft touch near the top of the box put Spicer in alone and he slotted past Huskie goalkeeper Atahan Arslan (Ismir, Turkiye) to give Notre Dame a 1-0 lead. 

NIU was level through Sheffield's sixth goal of the season in the 27th minute. Niko Angulo (Dallas, Texas/Allegiance Academy) Dispossessed a Notre Dame midfielder in the middle third and sprung a quick Huskie attack finding Sheffield. The West Linn, Ore., native fired from just outside the box, beating a diving Kelly in goal for Notre Dame to pull the Huskies level at one. 

Angulo nearly put the Huskies in front in the 31st minute as Mukuka swung in a corner from the left side and Angulo's flicked header from the back post nearly found the corner of the net but Kelly made an outstanding save with his left hand to keep the contest level. 

In the 57th minute, NIU was reduced to 10-men when Arslan was shown a straight red card. Two minutes later, Huskie substitute goalkeeper Caleb Pearson (Fort Worth, Texas/L.D. Bell) made an outstanding stop as Spicer tried to chip him from close range, but Pearson was able tip the shot over the crossbar and out for a corner. 

With Notre Dame (7-4-4) enjoying the majority of possession up a man, the Huskies sprung a perfect counterattack to go in front in the 64th minute. From the clearance of a Notre Dame long throw, Jose Gomez (Roatan, Honduras) picked the ball up in midfield and got about 25 yards from goal before squaring it to Montoya whose left-footed, low driven shot from 18 yards slid past Kelly to give the hosts a 2-1 advantage. 

"Martin is such a technical player," said Swan. "Once he got into that position, we felt pretty good that he was going to find the net and it was a tremendous finish."

It was an outstanding defensive effort from there for the Huskies as Notre Dame had eight shots in the final 25 minutes, but just one that was on target as Pearson commanded his area on crosses and the Huskies held on for a famous victory in DeKalb. 

The win is NIU's first over Notre Dame since a 2-0 victory on Sept. 15, 1994, the last time the Fighting Irish visited NIU. 

Up next for the Huskies is a trip to Chicago on Saturday night (Oct. 25) to face UIC in a matchup of two of the three teams tied for second in the Missouri Valley Conference standings. Kickoff against the Flames is slated for 7 p.m. 

"There is a lot of belief in this team right now," said Swan. "They believe they are in every game, they believe they can win every game, and they found a way again today to get a result. Very proud of everyone associated with the program."