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Steve Kolzow and Drew Jeskey contain the ball on defense. NIU men’s soccer was 0-1-1 this weekend. | Northern Star file photo
Men's soccer records loss, tie in weekend tourney
The Northern Illinois men’s soccer team ended its weekend on a positive note at the Mike Berticelli Tournament in South Bend, Ind., on Sunday.
After losing 1-0 to No. 4 Indiana on Friday, the Huskies bounced back by tying No. 9 Notre Dame, 1-1.
Coach Steve Simmons rated the weekend a success despite the fact the Huskies came away winless.
”Our performances were pretty solid,” Simmons said. “It just reinforces that we are of an elite level.”
Simmons said the maturity of his team was evident this weekend, being able to put the tough loss to Indiana out of its mind and come back and play Notre Dame as well as it did.
“Make no mistake, Notre Dame is a Final Four-caliber team,” Simmons said. “For our guys to compete with them, the kids have worked very, very hard to put the team at this level.”
“We were very disappointed with the result on Friday, and for our guys to have the maturity to respond with an even better performance Sunday was fantastic.”
After a Fighting Irish goal in the first half, Ben Thomas found the back of the net with a goal on an assist from Marcus McCarty to tie the score.
“Marcus was able to turn around the defender,” Thomas said. “I took a shot and hit it near post.”
Simmons was happy with the play of his defense against two of the top teams in the country.
“Our defense played extremely well,” Simmons said. “We took it to Notre Dame. We pinned them back, took away their chance to get some rhythm.”
Thomas said the Huskies showed flashes of brilliance in both games.
“We dominated parts of the game against Indiana,” Thomas said. “We had our chances and didn’t finish.”
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