Men’s soccer (1-2-1) takes its home pitch for the first time this season on the heels on back-to-back road losses.

The Huskies will take on the UIC Flames (3-0-1), ranked No. 24, 7 p.m. Friday and will then square off against the Green Bay Phoenix (2-2) 6 p.m. Sunday in DeKalb

The Huskies will attempt to regain some of the points they lost last weekend in their away games as they take advantage of being at home. They will also set out to prove they can compete against a team in the top 25.

UIC

The Flames recently came off a scoreless tie against No. 7-ranked Michigan State (2-0-1) before winning 1-0 against Drake (1-2-1). The Flames have recorded five goals in their first four games while only allowing two.

“UIC is very good,” said head coach Eric Luzzi. “We’ve seen a couple of videos already. They don’t give away a lot, they keep their lines tight and they keep relatively compact defensively. They are also decent on the counterattack and they have a good goalkeeper, so yeah, they are a good team, so it’s going to be a tough game. …”

NIU, on the other hand, has recorded four goals in its first four games and allowed five.

The Huskies will want to keep an eye on senior forward Jesus Torres and junior defender Thomas Villamil, who have been named Horizon League Offensive Player of the Week and Horizon League Defensive Player of the Week, respectively.

Torres has participated in three of four games for the Flames, recording eight shots, two goals and one assist. Villamil has also recorded a goal for the Flames this season.

Green Bay

The Phoenix are coming off of a 1-0 win against Western Illinois (1-3). Just two days before that, the Phoenix played Drake and lost 3-1.

“Green Bay is interesting,” Luzzi said. “They have two or three very special players. So I think for them, this game is really a matter of which of their team is going to show up. If they’re flying and they’re feeling it, it’s going to be a really difficult game for us. Again, I expect us to have a fair amount of the ball. It’s just a matter of seeing if we can translate that to purposeful possession that leads to real chances.”

The Phoenix like to attack, recording 52 shots on the season compared to the Huskies’ 37 shots. Sophomore midfielder Audi Jepson has participated in all four of the Phoenix games, recording seven shots, two goals and two assists.