ST. PAUL, Minn. – After losing to Crown College in St. Bonifacius only 21 days ago, the Northwestern Men's Soccer team showed up Saturday afternoon ready to play against the 3
rd ranked team in the UMAC. The Eagles came away with a shutout win of 2-0 against the Polars.
Northwestern challenged Crown's back line right from the start, with a shot from
Curtis Tinjum (Wausau, Wis./Wausau West) that missed wide by an inch. Ten minutes later Tinjum found himself open in front of the goal and hit the back of the net. Before the Eagles could celebrate, the side official had lifted his flag signaling off-sides. With the 1-0 lead taken away, Northwestern continued to battle for the opening goal. In the 41
st minute, Eagles' head coach
Greg Wheaton made his first substitution, bringing
Garrett Miers (Lino Lakes, Minn./Centennial) on the pitch. Miers made his presence known immediately by netting the first goal of the game only two minutes after stepping onto the field. Leading up to the goal,
Simeon Friesen (Mounds View, Minn./Homeschool) pressed up the field and crossed the ball into the 18-yard box, finding
Gonzalo Luna Belmonte (Riverbank, Calif./Riverbank), who controlled the ball out of the air, landing his pass right at the feet of Miers.
The Eagles headed to the locker room with the 1-0 lead securely in place. Northwestern knew they needed to come back out in the second half to keep the Polars at bay. Towards the end of an evenly-matched, back and forth second half, the Eagles found the gap in the defense that they were searching for. In the 75
th minute,
Troy Johnson (Killeen, Texas/Killeen) headed the ball to himself, creating enough space to split two Polar defenders, then he buried the ball past Crown's goalkeeper. Despite being a man down, Northwestern secured the win, 2-0, with Johnson's goal.
Garett Miers accurately tallied one goal on his one shot attempt, while Johnson scored one goal with two total shots.
Teddy Hall (Mendota Heights, Minn./Homeschool),
Curtis Tinjum (Wausau, Wis./Wausau West),
Tim DeLoye (Wausau, Wis./Wausau West), and
Simeon Friesen (Mounds View, Minn./Homeschool) each added two shots. Both Friesen and Luna Belmonte also added an assist. In his first career start,
Jonathan Orlowski (Waunakee, Wis./Waunakee) secured a clean sheet with five saves.
The Eagles will take on the number one team in the UMAC, UW-Superior, on Wednesday at 4:30 at NBC Spartan Sports Complex in Superior, WI.
