A goal from sophomore midfielder Angel Rodriguez in the 79th minute proved to be enough to get NIU men’s soccer back into the win column. 

NIU (3-6, 0-2 MVC) defeated the Marquette University Golden Eagles (7-3-1, 1-2 Big East) by a final score of 1-0 on Monday at the Marquette University Valley Fields. 

After four losses and a no-contest, goalkeeping by freshman Atahan Arslan and the goal from Rodriguez put the Huskies on top for their first win since Sept. 4. 

The Golden Eagles led the Huskies in shots and shots on goal with 16 shots, 7 of which were on goal. NIU had 5 shots, with 2 on goal. Rodriguez played 23 minutes, recording one shot in addition to the goal. 

“I’m feeling excited because I think it’s a big turnaround for the team,” Rodriguez said. “I think we’re going to go in a positive direction, more positive momentum. I was striving to get a goal. I haven’t scored since the first two games, so it was a long time since scoring. Once the coaches told me to just get in the box, I was doing my job. I trusted my teammates to get me the ball, and they trusted me to finish the job, and I ended up getting the goal.”

Rodriguez emphasized the work of the defense and how their performance allowed him to score.

“We trusted our guys at the back more, leaving them a little more space, letting them play, and not falling back as much,” Rodriguez said. “We went up top, and we scored more goals.”

Arslan played 90 minutes, recording 7 saves on 16 shots faced. . 

“I can’t turn my back on the team,” Arslan said. “Everyone was doing all the hard work; and if I was losing my concentration just one time, it could be dangerous for the whole team. That’s the bottom motivation for me.”

NIU men’s soccer head coach Ryan Swan elaborated on the decision behind starting Arslan over the other goalkeepers on the roster. 

“This was our off week from conference play, so we wanted to get a look at a few different players,” Swan said. “Atahan (Arslan) has been playing very well. We wanted to give him an opportunity to get a look at him, and I thought he was outstanding.”

Moving forward to the next match against Missouri Valley Conference opponent Drake University, Swan described the team mentality and the shift from Monday. 

“It’s(the right playstyle) important to me,” Swan said.“I’m hoping to the team that we play the game a certain way, and I think we’ve broken from that a little bit. When you start losing or you start conceding goals, I think the confidence goes down and questions come in about the way that we’re playing or things that we’re doing. I think it negatively affected us so that we’re not playing the kind of stuff that we wanted to play, and we broke away from that. We got some of that back tonight, and I hope we just continue doing that.” 

NIU plays next at 6 p.m. Saturday at the James W. Cownie Soccer Complex against Drake. The game will be streamed on ESPN+, and live stats will be available through Stat Broadcast.