The NIU soccer team remained undefeated against professional teams this year as the Huskies played an agressive Chicago Blaze squad to a 2-2 tie.

NIU got the scoring started 10 minutes into the game when freshman Dave Weichman received a pass from Per Ekholdt in the right wing and shoved the ball past Russ Prince, the Blaze goalie.

The Blaze had several break-away attempts in the game but failed to score until the second half when Jimmy Ruiz passed the ball to Bora Petrich who kicked the ball over a charging Markus Roy into the goal with 40:27 remaining in the game to tie the score at one.

NIU head coach Willy Roy said the experience of some of the Blaze players gave them the advantage on the field. “They have some experienced players who know what they’re doing out on the field. They know when to hold the ball and where to move, which is what good pro players should be able to do,” Roy said.

The Blaze used that experience to get ahead in the second half just one minute and five seconds after their first goal. It was Petrich again as he made a perfect centering pass from the left side and William Navas headed the ball just out of the reach of a diving Markus Roy.

The Huskies were able to pull together and take control with the help of some favorable officiating. The Huskies took over the momentum of the game after falling behind, but Prince was ready for them.

The Huskies had many excellent scoring opportunities in the second half, but Prince was able keep the Blaze ahead with his 11 saves in the game, eight coming in the second half.

Just when it seemed the Huskies weren’t going to get any breaks from Prince, the officials made a couple questionable calls to help the Huskies’ cause.

“I don’t want to sound like sour grapes, but even coach Roy admitted that the calls were awful,” said Alek Mahailovic, player-coach of the Blaze.

Mahailovic was red carded with 16:52 remaining in the game when he threw a tantrum about a call that gave the Huskies a penalty kick. Ironically, it was Mahailovic who told his team to take it easy and not get thrown out of the game in his pre-game speech. But Karsten Roy could not capitalize off the penalty kick as his shot hit the right pole and bounced off.

The Huskies got another penalty kick to the dismay of Mahailovic with 9:21 remaining. This time Roy, Jr. connected on the shot, putting the ball in the right corner.

Jorge Espinosa of the Blaze and former Sting player was impressed with the NIU squad. “They played really well. We knew we had to be careful playing against them because they’re a smart team, and they had real good ball control. We knew they could put the ball in the net so we had to be careful,” he said.