No. 20 ranked NIU men’s soccer won its second game in a row Saturday night, downing Drake in Des Moines 1-0.

“Drake is a difficult team to play against,” said Eric Luzzi, NIU head men’s soccer coach. “They are a very physical team, and they made it hard for us to do anything.”

The Huskies (7-1-0) had to overcome adversity throughout the game as well as play without senior captain defender Francis Otira for more than half the match.

“We lost Francis thirty minutes into the game,” Luzzi said. “We had to overcome that, and we put Dusty [Page] into the game, who did a great job. On top of that, the referee was absolutely awful. There was a lot of adversity and our guys dealt with it great.”

Luzzi said Otira should be back for the Huskies next game.

The Huskies lone goal came in the 25th minute from sophomore James Stevenson, which was his first goal of the year.

NIU junior goalkeeper Jordan Godsey recorded seven saves on his way to his fifth shutout of the season.

Godsey also got a lot of help from his teammates.

“The defense was fantastic,” Luzzi said. “The whole back six did a great job and picked up the slack from Francis being out, and Jordan made some absolutely world class saves. It was a great defensive effort.”

Stevenson said the key on defense was the pressure the Huskies put on Drake.

“We put a lot of pressure on them defensively and made it difficult for them to score and do anything on offense,” Stevenson said.

This was not a pretty win for the Huskies, but they are happy to get it.

“There will be times when games are not decided by skill,” Luzzi said. “This game was decided by will, and I was glad we found a way to get the win.”