After sliding out of the NSCAA rankings, NIU men’s soccer bounced back from its most recent loss to Buffalo to beat Marquette 1-0 on the road in double overtime.

The Huskies (8-2-0) experienced their second double-overtime game in a row and their fourth overtime game in their last five games.

In the first half, NIU came out slow. The Huskies didn’t take a shot, while the Golden Eagles (4-5-2) came out aggressively, putting up 10 shots.

“Marquette came at us on all cylinders and we were just flat,” said NIU head men’s soccer coach Eric Luzzi. “We had guys not getting back, not in the right places, but that’s part of the game. We were completely under pressure for the first 30 minutes of the game.”

The Huskies came out more aggressively in the second half as they outshot Marquette 9-6.

“I thought that in the second half we were the aggressor,” Luzzi said. “We had them on their heels for a lot of the second half.”

However, neither team was able to score in the second half either, and the game went into overtime.

There was little action in overtime as the Huskies failed to get a shot off again, and the Golden Eagles only took one shot.

That called for the second overtime.

Finally, in the 107th minute of the double-overtime period, NIU freshman Jayson LeSeth came up huge for NIU, scoring the game-winning goal. It was LeSeth’s first goal of the season.

“It felt really good; it feels amazing to me,” LeSeth said. “I’ve never really thought of myself as a goal-scorer, but it’s really nice when I get one…especially one as big as this one.”

The defense, along with junior goalkeeper Jordan Godsey, were the two keys to the Huskies’ win over Marquette, earning their sixth shutout of the year.

Godsey recorded three saves in the game, all of which came in the first half of the match.

Luzzi thought that his team did a good job of turning around what started as a bad performance.

“In the first 30 minutes, the team’s effort was poor, to be honest,” Luzzi said. “We started the game flat, but we recovered. [We] turned it around, and the last 60 minutes were a lot better than the first 40. There is always something to be said for finding a way to win.”