DEKALB, Ill. – The Northern Illinois University men's soccer team fell to Eastern Illinois, 3-2, on Tuesday night (Sept. 16) at the NIU Soccer Complex. Vance Sheffield (West Linn, Ore./La Salle Catholic College Prep) and Niko Angulo (Dallas, Texas/Allegiance Academy) scored for the Huskies, but the Panthers built a 2-0 first half lead and sealed the victory with a 77th goal from Gui Gragnano.

"It is incredible that we have thrown that game away," said NIU head coach Ryan Swan. "I thought there were some good moments for us, we got in great positions, we scored a couple of decent goals and their goalkeeper has made a couple of fantastic saves. The goals we conceded today have been really disappointing. It seems like a bit of a continuation from Saturday; we have just been a little sloppy in our build out. We can see where the problems are and, hopefully, they are an easy fix with a couple days of training."

The Huskies nearly opened the scoring in the sixth minute as Jose Gomez (Roatan, Honduras) played an excellent ball to Sheffield streaking into the box who fired just high. 

Eastern Illinois (1-3-1) opened the scoring in the 22nd minute as Casey Welage latched onto a long ball down the left wing, eluded a tackle by a Huskie defender and lobbed a ball over the head of NIU goalkeeper Atahan Arslan (Ismir, Turkiye) to give the visitors the early lead. 

The Panthers doubled their advantage just three minutes later as an initial shot from Welage was stopped by Arslan but Shion Hayashi was first to pounce on the rebound as he poked a shot past Arslan at the near post to give Eastern Illinois a 2-0 lead in the 25th minute.

Late in the first half, Niko Ladas (Naperville, Ill./Naperville North) headed just over the crossbar off a free kick from Gomez as the Panthers took the 2-0 lead into the interval. 

NIU (3-3-1) pulled a goal back early in the second half as Sheffield scored his third goal of the season. Sheffield collected the ball from a throw-in in the box and his shot from 15 yards took a slight deflection off an Eastern Illinois defender to wrong-foot Panther goalkeeper Franco Barba and cut the EIU lead to just one in the 50th minute. 

The Huskies were nearly level from a corner kick in the 70th minute as Sheffield's header from close range forced an outstanding save from Barba and on the follow-up, Ladas had a chance cleared off the line by a Panther defender. 

Eastern Illinois regained its two-goal advantage on Gragnano's goal in the 77th minute. Ben Griffis dispossessed a Huskie defender along the sideline and worked his way into the box before sending a low cross that deflected kindly to the feet of Gragnano who tucked a shot into the back of the net from six yards out. 

Less than a minute later, NIU was reduced to 10-men when the Huskies were showed a red card for denial of a goal scoring opportunity.

In the closing moments, the Huskies scored a second as Angulo fired a low shot through traffic past Barba from a corner kick taken by Martin Montoya (Hinsdale, Ill./Hinsdale Central) but with just 20 seconds remaining in the contest the Huskies were unable to get a chance to find a tying goal.

NIU will return to action on Sunday, Sept. 21, when the Huskies travel to meet Chicago State at Gwendolyn Brooks College Prep. Kickoff against the Cougars is scheduled for 1 p.m.