No. 20 ranked NIU men’s soccer split its pair of overtime games last weekend, giving them its first loss of the year.

“The loss stung a little bit, as it should,” said NIU’s head soccer coach Eric Luzzi. “But it is in the past. The team came out and gave a good performance against UC Davis, and we are ready to move on.”

The Huskies (6-1-0) look to get back on track as they face Drake (5-3-1) for the eighth time in school history, with the series tied at 3-3-1.

“Drake is a good team,” Luzzi said. “They are athletic and work hard. They play with two forwards which is different from what most teams do and we will have to be sharp against them to come away with a win.”

The offense has been a strong point for NIU this year. To this point, the Huskies offense scored 12 goals on 37 shot attempts, whereas last year they had only scored eight goals.

Sophomore Gael Rivera led NIU’s offense last weekend, who scored both of the goals for the Huskies, as well as the game winner against UC Davis. Rivera has three goals for NIU on the year.

The defense also only gave up four goals on the year.

NIU junior goalkeeper Jordan Godsey has 18 saves and has recorded four shutouts.

“We need to continue to follow our game plan,” Luzzi said. “We need to keep doing the things we have been working on in practice and apply that to the game. If we do that we will play well and good things will happen.”