Box Score

ST. PAUL – It was worth the wait for the University of Northwestern men's soccer team. After starting the season with a 0-4 record versus difficult non-conference opponents, the squad was firing on all cylinders in its opening Upper Midwest Athletic Conference (UMAC) contest. The Eagles notched five second half goals to secure the victory by a 6-0 margin.

Northwestern controlled the pace early, forcing four shots in the first five minutes of play. The Eagles continued maintaining the momentum on offense, posting an overall margin of 14 attacks in the first half in comparison to the visitors' two. It was the 12th shot of the period, however, that did the trick as Larry Sinneh (Monrovia, Liberia/Cathedral) found Sean Taylor (Sydney, Australia /Kenosha Christian Life ) to put the home team on the scoreboard in minute 33.

After heading into halftime with a 1-0 lead, UNW came out of intermission aggressively with Micah Mogler (Mendota Heights, Minn./LCA) netting a goal of his own courtesy of Mark Habeck (Winona, Minn./Winona) just seven minutes into the period. Queue 5:36 later and the rythym progressed thanks to assists from Joshua Fryc (Harris, Minn./Homeschool) and Taylor leading towards a Habeck score.

Northwestern was not finished, as its offensive run was just halfway through. In the 66^th minute, Taylor continued with arguably the best game of his career as he pushed a header past the Knights' goalie to give the home team on the scoreboard a 4-0 upper hand. With the goal, defender Matt Flanders (Osceola, Wis./Homeschooled) was handed the first assist of his senior campaign.

Once again, the Purple and Gold made its presence felt with Habeck tallying yet another point en route to a Joshua Wolderich (Ferndale, Wash./Hillcrest Academy) goal, contributing to the back field's productive afternoon. The final shot through the pipes came with less than 10 minutes ticking off the clock as Peter Maring (Harris, Minn./Cambridge Christian) used a header to secure the final outcome of the contest, 6-0.

In what proved to be an offensive showing for the home squad, the defensive effort by the Eagles allowed just seven total shots, while the team a whole posted 26 in 90 minutes of action.

With the win, Northwestern improves to 1-4 on the season and 1-0 in UMAC play. Reynolds Field will once again be the playing location on Saturday with UNW serving as a host to Bethany Lutheran College in a noon kickoff.