They’re the outsiders.

Racing from one end of the field to the other, juniors Kevin Woerner and Justin McGrane of the NIU men’s soccer team make a living on the sidelines.

The duo are coach Steve Simmons’ outside midfielders, and each considers himself a jack-of-all-trades.

At one end of the field Woerner and McGrane will lock down on defense. At the other end, the third-year players lead the Huskies’ offensive attack.

Before the 2005 season Simmons said he believed he had two of the best outside midfielders in the MAC.

Little did the third-year coach know Woerner and McGrane would more than fulfill his expectations after losing his top offensive threat.

Last season forward Curt Zastrow led the Huskies with 18 points. The sophomore scored nine goals en route to making the Freshmen First-Team All-American squad.

However, Zastrow was lost to injury for a majority of this season, starting eight of NIU’s 16 games.

With the Huskies defense anchored by junior goalkeeper Steve Goletz, who strung together seven straight shutouts at one point this fall, Simmons needed to replace Zastrow’s offensive output.

Enter Woerner and McGrane.

Woerner’s 13 points is tops on the team and McGrane’s 10 ties for second with teammate Chris VanDuerm.

An Elmhurst native, Woerner took home last week’s MAC Player of the Week honors after scoring each of NIU’s goals in its 2-1 overtime win over Indiana-Purdue at Fort Wayne.

Woerner’s five goals tie him for the team lead with VanDuerm.

“Coming into the season nothing was set in stone,” Woerner said. “I think Coach Simmons was looking to the returning players to lead.”

As for McGrane, the Rockford native’s four assists place him at the top of the team leader-board with sophomore Steve Algozino.

“I thought I played real well last year and really wanted to make First-Team All-MAC,” McGrane said. “This year I’ve been able to evolve into an attacker and goal scorer.”

But both of the players admit they wouldn’t have the success they are without the solid play of fellow defensive backs.

The Huskies defense has allowed 16 goals on the season in helping Goletz record nine shutouts.

“The defensive backs have been able to control the flow of the game,” McGrane said. “That has a lot of influence on whether or not we can go forward and stay forward on the offensive end of the field.”

NIU’s offense can say it’s been fortunate to have a solid defense, notching only 21 goals this fall after scoring 31 a year ago.

McGrane said the chances have been there for NIU on offense, but they just haven’t been able to convert.

“We couldn’t ask for anything more from our defense,” Woerner said. “We’ve been able to counter a lot better this year off other team’s attacks, and as an offense we’ve been able to put one or two in the net.”

With an 11-5-2 record, the juniors said they are glad the team has come this far after going 3-13-2 as freshmen in 2003.

“I’m not going to lie and say I thought we would go 12-7 the next season,” McGrane said. “But we realized what our mind set needed to be and we stuck around because we knew coach Simmons was a winner.”

That season, Simmons’ first as head coach, Woerner and McGrane started 15 and 17 games, respectively. As a forward, Woerner scored one goal and had three assists while McGrane didn’t crack the score book.

“We had five freshmen starting at one point that year,” McGrane said. “So, there was a lot of pressure, but we had the freedom to just go and play.”

The game experience led to a nine-game swing the next season as the Huskies finished 12-7.

Woerner had one goal and four assists while McGrane scored two goals and registered three assists.

“I’ve gained a lot of confidence in myself by having all the playing experience,” McGrane said. “I feel like I have the ability to take people one on one and give our team an advantage.”

Heading into this year, neither of the players expected to lead the team in points. Rather, McGrane and Woerner said they thought they’d create opportunities for the offense.

Regardless, the two have become the leaders of the Huskies’ offensive attack, and in the process helped NIU advance past the first round of the MAC Tournament for the first time in five seasons.

“Our main goal is to help on defense,” Woerner said. “But the confidence we have in our defensive backs has allowed us to get up the field and connect with the forwards.”