NIU got a big swing in momentum last night after freshman Charlie Oliver scored an overtime goal, giving the Huskies a 1-0 win over Northwestern (10-4-2) in its final non-conference game of the season.

With key players suspended through yellow card accumulation, NIU (4-8-3) made a couple new changes to its line up as coach Eric Luzzi gave freshmen Miles Stockman-Willis, Kyle Crichton and Kyle McDonald their first start of the season.

Stockman-Willis, the only freshman to play the entirety game, was pleased the hard work he put into the season had paid off.

“It was really good,” Stockman-Willis said. “I’ve been training hard to get on the field and Luzzi finally gave me a chance so I tried to take it as well as I could. I thought all the freshmen played well today and we got the win.”

The first half was pretty even as the two teams went back and forth. NIU senior goalkeeper Jordan Godsey only needed to make one save throughout the first half.

Things stayed back and forth in the second half. In the 60th minute, Godsey made the save of the game, stopping a 6-yard shot from Northwestern’s freshman forward Joey Calistri.

After the game ended regular time, it didn’t take long for Oliver to put the ball in the net in overtime.

Just 45 seconds into the first overtime period, Oliver blasted home a shot from outside the box, snapping NIU’s four-game losing streak.

“It was awesome,” Oliver said. “It was better than I could have expected. I saw the center [back] come out hard so I tried to take a touch over him and it worked. When it came down I thought I had to shoot. It’s usually now or never and it went in.”

The Huskies (2-1-1 MAC) will look to take this momentum into the weekend as they take on MAC Conference newcomers West Virginia (8-4-2, 3-1-1 MAC).

The Mountaineers are coming off of a 2-1 loss against conference leader Akron and are led by senior defender Eric Schoenle, who leads the team with five goals. Luzzi said the win against Northwestern gives NIU a good mindset for the weekend.

“I think Northwestern is the sixth top 25 team we have played, and I think we’ve battled hard and competed,” Luzzi said. “It reinforces the belief that we are a good team and we can go and get a result against anybody on our schedule.”