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Huskies One Up Bulls At Home, 1-0

Lucas Martorana

With a miserable overcast hanging over the Huskie Soccer Complex, both teams found difficulty in building an offense capable of blasting a shot past the goalkeeper. The Bulls managed to outshoot the Huskies 5-4, but could not get off a shot on goal, as each shot either sailed over the net or clear to the left or right. Junior goalkeeper Daniel Bell (Brampton, Ontario/Notre Dame) made two saves to contribute to what looked to be a very slow game.

Jon Martin

With two minutes underway in the second half, Northern Illinois broke one past the mighty UB defense that has allowed only an average of 0.75 goals per game. Huskie midfielder Chris Rufa gunned home the eventual game-winner with a give from fellow middie Bryan Abdullah. The Huskies got only one other shot on Bell for the rest of the match, but the dagger from Rufa would be all the team needed.

The Bulls' offense was lackluster as once again the team was without its leading offense scorer, sophomore Lee Catchpole (Norwich, England/Bungay), who has sat out the last three games due to an undisclosed injury sustained last Sunday against IPFW. Sophomore Lucas Martorana (Warren, OH/Howland) and freshman Jon Martin (Syracuse, NY/Westhill) led the team with two shots apiece against a Huskie squad that was ranked 21st in the nation just two weeks ago.

With the win, Northern Illinois (10-4-2) has a Mid-American Conference record of 3-1-0 after a loss to nationally top-ranked Akron, who clinched the MAC regular season title with a perfect 5-0 record. NIU currently sits second in the MAC and has one more conference game against IPFW on November 2.

The Bulls end their regular season with a 12-3-1 record, as the team won its first eight games and was the first team in Division I to claim its 10th victory of the season. The team finishes with a 2-2-1 MAC record, which sits tied with Western Michigan for third place.

The team who finishes fourth in the conference will host the quarterfinals of the MAC Tournament, which starts on Tuesday, November 8.