NIU men’s soccer (1-4) was slaughtered by the University of Missouri-Kansas City Roos (3-1-1) in a 6-2 defeat, dropping its third straight match.
In a matter of minutes, the score quickly went from 0-0 to 3-0 in favor of the Roos.
Fourteen minutes into the match, Kansas City junior midfielder Raphael Kistmann found the lower left corner of the goal to start the scoring spree. Junior forward Elie Kisoka sent the ball over Huskie redshirt freshman goalkeeper Caleb Pearson’s head into the back of the net in the 17th minute. Less than a minute later, Kisoka scored his second goal to increase the deficit for NIU to 3-0.
“I’m kind of at a loss for words at the moment,” said NIU men’s soccer head coach Ryan Swan. “There’s bright spots in the game but as soon as something seems to go against us right now, it really does snowball. We gave up that first goal in transition, I thought it was a poor turnover from us, they scored and then before you know it we’re 3-0 down. Our decision making on the ball is just still not at the level we need it to be at.”
The Huskies broke through in the 28th minute of the match when senior forward Kevin Kelly slipped past Kansas City senior goalkeeper Brandon McGaugh to put NIU on the board.
Ten minutes later, redshirt freshman midfielder Joe Hernandez scored his first goal as a Huskie to continue the effort and cut the Roos lead down to one.
Minutes before halftime, Kansas City found goal number four off a kick to the low left of the goal from sophomore midfielder/forward Hector Taboada.
After a lengthy halftime huddle, the Huskies returned to the field, only to face more of the same from Kansas City.
“We kind of knew that there were going to be more goals in this game, more opportunities,” said Swan. “As lopsided as the score was, I thought UMKC were giving us chances and spilling the ball up a little bit, so we were talking about how there would be more chances and more goals in this game. We were trying to dig it out of the guys to have the belief, to try and get a positive result even though they were a couple goals down.”
In the 57th minute, Kistmann sent the ball soaring into the top of the net. To put the stamp on the defeat of the Huskies, sophomore forward Jeremy Francou scored the sixth goal of the night for the Roos in the 76th minute.
In the end, the Huskies were outshot 15-9, and created only 4 shots on goal. Pearson saved 1 goal attempt from the Roos, while McGaugh notched 2 saves.
Kelly looks forward to their next match when the Huskies take on their first Missouri Valley Conference opponent.
“I think right now we’re just missing a bit of belief,” said Kelly. “There’s good moments in there, and I think the mistakes are coming from us. We just have to get our belief back and focus on the conference. Bowling Green is a big rival of ours, so they’re going to come at us. We’re going to have to put in a lot of work over these next four days, recover, and then go again.”
NIU men’s soccer looks to end a three-match losing streak on the road at 6 p.m. CST Friday on the road when they take on Bowling Green State University at Cochrane Stadium in Bowling Green, Ohio. The match will be livestreamed on Youtube and live stats will be updated on SideArm Stats.
