Men’s soccer comes back to beat NIU

By Roger Sievers
Western Herald

The Western Michigan men’s soccer team is winning at the right time of the year as they came back from a 1-0 deficit to beat the Northern Illinois University Huskies 2-1 on the road Wednesday afternoon.

Picked to finish last in the Mid-American Conference by the coaches at the beginning of the year, the Brown and Gold just have to tie against the University at Buffalo Saturday, coupled with a Hartwick College loss to the No. 1 team in the nation, the University of Akron, to claim the second seed in the upcoming MAC tournament.

NIU scored first in the 27th minute as Huskie midfielder Luis De La Cerda played a long pass into the defense that forward Ben Horton tried to kick over Bronco senior goalkeeper Casey Aubil. The ball deflected off Aubil who went off his line to get a piece of it, but landed in front of midfielder Brad Horton who put the ball away into the open net.

The Huskies would dominate for much of the first half out shooting WMU 16-3, however the Broncos gained momentum towards the end of the first half and carried it over to the second half. Leading scorer on the team junior midfielder Saeed Sulemana Baba continued his scoring heroics in the 64th minute as he volleyed a ball into the net that was deflected up in the air from 12 yards out for his 13th goal of the year.

Then stepping up big as a freshman, defender Kai Mendes scored the game-winning goal in the 74th minute off of an assist from midfielder Darren Jones. The goal was Mendes’ second of the year and the fifth assist for Jones which ties him with Mendes for most on the team.

NIU out shot WMU 22-10 for the game, but Western Michigan had the advantage on corner kicks 6-3. Aubil made four saves in goal for the Broncos.

Northern Illinois (10-7-1, 3-3-0 MAC) with the loss will now be the number four seed in the Mid-American Conference tournament and will have to play the No. 1 seed and team in the nation the Akron Zips. WMU’s (7-8-1, 3-1-1 MAC) win was huge because it assured them that they won’t have to play Akron until the finals of the tournament.

“I think that was my best goal yet [this season],” Sulemana Baba said about the game-tying goal. “The win means we avoid Akron in the first [tournament] game.”

Sulemana Baba currently leads the nation in goals per game average.

The Broncos will now return home to Kalamazoo to play Buffalo Saturday at 2 p.m. on Senior Appreciation day. The collegiate careers of Aubil and midfielders Shaun Clements, Tyler Rosenhagen and Charlie Watts will be celebrated before the match. The match will be played at the WMU Soccer Complex located on the Parkview Campus.

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Posted by heraldstaff on Nov 5 2009. Filed under Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry

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