NIU men’s soccer (1-2) was trounced by the University of Memphis Tigers (1-2) in a 5-1 defeat, moving to 1-2 on the season.
NIU men’s soccer head coach Ryan Swan expressed his disappointment in the loss.
“It was pretty awful,” Swan said. “We knew this was going to be a game where transition was going to be huge. With the exception of the opening 10 minutes of each half, we were punished in the transitional side of the game. We gave the ball away cheaply. There was no real identity to our team today and we got punished for every mistake.”
The Huskies were outshot 22-8, with only five shots on goal compared to 10 shots on goal for Memphis.
After facing a corner kick from Memphis only 28 seconds into the match, redshirt freshman goalkeeper Caleb Pearson was able to hold the Tigers off until the 30th minute, recording four saves before allowing the first goal.
“Caleb played really well I thought,” Swan said. “I don’t think the goals were his fault from a technical perspective. We gave up 22 shots, it’s an unacceptable thing for the team. When you give up too many shots and too many goals, it’s the collective effort.”
After Memphis fifth-year forward Luciano Galizzi scored in the 30th minute, it was less than six minutes before Memphis doubled its lead. In the 36th minute, junior midfielder Lleyton Imparato sent the ball flying into the upper corner of the net.
After the halftime break, Memphis sophomore midfielder Konstantinos Marneros put the Huskies down 3-0 in the 60th minute.
Junior forward Taylor Davis scored the lone goal for the Huskies in the 70th minute when he found the goal to cut the Tiger’s lead to two.
26 seconds later, junior midfielder Adam Yousfi reclaimed Memphis’ three-goal lead when he scored in the 71st minute.
In the 86th minute, graduate student defender Logan Longo put away a fifth goal for the Tigers, putting the stamp on NIU’s defeat.
Pearson recorded a total of five saves for the Huskies while allowing all five goals, and the Huskies forced junior goalkeeper Filip Sabatti to make four saves.
Swan looks forward to the next match and the rest of the season ahead for the Huskies.
“It’s not about one result,” Swan said. “There are some things we need to shore up, but I think the focus is going to be on individual responsibility. We played Memphis, who are a very old and experienced team with a lot of graduate students and fifth years. We still seem young and immature in comparison. The challenge for us is to get these young men to mature into the responsibility. I think we can do that, we’ve got good soccer players and there’s still a good season ahead of us. We’ve got to focus on getting that belief back and how we want to play.”
NIU looks to bounce back at home at 1 p.m. Sunday when the Huskies face the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay at the NIU Soccer and Track & Field Complex. NIU All Access will have a live stream and SideArm Stats will be updating live stats from the match.
