On Tuesday afternoon, facing a must-win, the NIU men’s soccer team played just about as complete a match as it could have.

The Huskies beat Bowling Green, 3-0 in quarterfinal play of the MAC Tournament, keeping alive its hopes of defending its MAC Tournament championship.

Coach Steve Simmons said the Huskies were firing on all cylinders and in all aspects of the match, scoring three goals - the second highest total of the year - and getting the sixth shutout of the season.

“We did a good job of keeping grips on them,” Simmons said. “We pressured them. The energy was very good, and the guys’ attitude was business-like. Our guys were on a business trip, and they handled it well. They did the things they were supposed to do.”

Marcus McCarty, fresh off of sitting out the season finale, was up to his usual tricks, netting the first goal of the match in the first half with a header. Chris Rufa and Blake Gotkowski assisted on McCarty’s goal.

Ben Thomas added a key goal less than a minute before halftime, splitting two Falcon defenders and setting himself up with a one-on-one situation with Bowling Green goalkeeper Brent Petkus. Simmons said maintaining a two-goal advantage going into halftime took some air out of the Falcons.

“Any goal that close to halftime is going to deflate any team,” Simmons said. “It was a very timely goal.”

The Huskies (7-8-4) also got the revenge it sought against the Falcons, avenging a 3-0 conference loss less than two weeks ago.

“Mentally, we were very in tune,” Simmons said. “Last time [against Bowling Green] we didn’t do that in the first half. This time we played a full 90 minutes.”

The road to the MAC championship match will not be easy, though. NIU’s reward for defeating Bowling Green is a semifinal match against tournament host and No. 17 Akron this Friday. The Huskies and Zips played to a 0-0 tie in the regular season.

“Akron is a wonderful team,” Simmons said. “Every time we play the games have been very, very exciting, very tight games.”

Fraser Gibson added the other Huskie goal, his fourth of the season, while Joe Zimka played in goal to earn his third shutout of the year.

The Huskies will be playing its next match on two days rest, while Akron hasn’t played in 13 days.

“They’re coming off a long rest,” Simmons said. “We’ll have to respond.”

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