A familiar foe stands in the way of another NIU men’s soccer victory.

The Huskies (5-4-1, 0-1-0) continue their grueling schedule with a match-up against No. 25 Northwestern (5-1-3, 1-0-0) today at 4 p.m.

“It’s just another tough game,” said NIU head coach Eric Luzzi. “They always find a way to get a result. They don’t have the best players, in terms of talent, but they’re a really, really good team in terms of being a team. We’re going to have to bring energy and edge and if we do that, we’ll be fine.”

This will be the third time this season that NIU faces a top 25 opponent. Although the record against those adversaries does not look pleasing, the Huskies have put up a fight with a 1-1 tie at then No. 1 UNC and a 1-0 loss to then No. 21 Tulsa.

Despite the Wildcat’s ranking, NIU has dominated the all-time series 16-6-4, but lost last years match 1-0.

“I think we’re probably both really familiar with each other because they come to our tournament so we watch them play twice and we go to their tournament so they watch us play twice,” Luzzi said. “They’ve seen us play four times and we’ve seen them play four times, so we’re both pretty familiar with each other.”

NU is unbeaten in its last seven games with five wins and two ties, its latest victory coming on Sunday against No. 15 Ohio State 1-0.

The Wildcats have out-scored and out-shot their opponents in nine matches 15-11 and 122-96 respectively.

Junior forward Matt Eliason and sophomore forward Oliver Kupe have controlled the NU attack this season, combining for nine of the team’s 15 goals and seven of the team’s 15 assists.

“Both of their strikers are handfuls in different ways,” said Luzzi. “One of them is a handful physically and athletically and the forward is a handful from the standpoint of he doesn’t need a lot of opportunities to score. He’ll just pop up whenever and wherever and he’ll just kind of create something out of nothing.”

NIU has won four out of its last six games, and in ten matches this season the Huskies have scored 18 goals while allowing only eight.

Senior Luis De La Cerda and sophomore Brad Horton have led scoring combining for half of the goals. Freshman keeper Jordan Godsey has also impressed many this year, allowing only six goals in his nine starts for a goals against average of 0.65 to go along with four shutouts.

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