There was a bad omen going into yesterday’s match against Illinois-Chicago, but the NIU soccer team overcame it.

Dusty Showers was suspended for the match for collecting five yellow cards; Jim Hall and Per Ekholdt were sick; and John Lechner was injured.

And just like its last three matches, the NIU defense gave up an early goal and eventually went down 2-0 to the Flames. But the Huskies scored three goals in eleven minutes to take a hard-fought 3-2 Mid-Continent victory yesterday.

“We were missing some players,” NIU coach Willy Roy said. “But that’s no excuse for playing as poorly as we did.”

UIC’s Mike Rigas gave the Flames a 1-0 lead with a penalty kick goal 11 minutes into the match.

“We needed this win,” said Karsten Roy, who had a foot in two of the three goals. “We just have to think the whole 90 minutes, not fall asleep on defense.”

Willy Roy gave the 8-3-1 Huskies something to think about in the lockerroom at half time.

“I tried to embarrass them,” he said. “I can’t always be a nice guy. We’re getting some recognition now. People are going to come after us.”

The Huskies responded by giving up a goal to UIC’s Mike Weitzenfelf, just four minutes into the second half.

“We got caught on a counter attack,” NIU goalie Markus Roy said.

Then the Huskies countered with their barrage of goals. Redshirt freshman Joe Novy scored on a header with 38:30 left in the match to start the Huskies’ comeback.

“The ball bounced up, I was waiting to shoot it, but I headed it instead,” Novy said. “It was just a reaction. I didn’t even see it go in, but I knew it was good. The first goal is the toughest to get so I knew we had a chance to come back.”

Just three minutes later, Frank Sparacino tied the match on his third goal of the year with the assist coming from Karsten Roy.

“Karsten gave me a pass over the middle,” Sparacino said. “I felt the defenders chasing me, so I got rid of it as quickly as I could.”

Karsten Roy scored the match winner off a corner kick with 27:16 left in the contest. “I was hoping for us to get more goals,” Karsten said. “For that span of 20 minutes, we dominated the match.”

The Intercollegiate Soccer Association of America poll voters must think the Huskies are dominating, too.

NIU received even more votes than last week despite its 2-1 OT loss to Akron, and only one team is standing in the way of the Huskies cracking the Top-25. Akron is right behind the Huskies.

But a loss to UIC (4-10) would have undoubtedly changed all that.