After a 3-0-1 start to the season, the NIU men’s soccer team found itself closer to the .500 mark after a pair of losses at its Adidas/Baymont Inn Invitational.

After falling to Northwestern 1-0 on Friday, the Huskies were defeated 2-0 on Sunday by tournament champion Detroit-Mercy. UDM won the tournament by outscoring NU in its two games.

NIU was without goalkeeper Steve Goletz. The junior suffered a concussion against Valparaiso Sept. 11.

“I’m going to see the doctor today and I’m 99 percent sure I’ll be cleared to play,” Goletz said. “It was a standard concussion, so they told me it would take seven days to recover.”

Freshman Joe Zimka stepped in the net, but didn’t receive any help from a Huskies offense that was shutout over the weekend. The only time Zimka had seen prior to Friday was the 19 minutes he played in NIU’s 3-2 win over Valpo.

“Paul Gable and those guys who have been around tried to help make him feel comfortable,” Goletz said. “For his first two collegiate starts I thought he did very well. He couldn’t have done anything more about the goals that were scored.”

NU scored at the 61:12 mark in the second half on a goal by David Roth.

NIU put seven shots on goal to the Wildcats four in the second half. NU goalkeeper Misha Rosenthal earned his first shutout and seven saves in the Huskies loss.

“It came down to their producing one very good attack,” NIU coach Steve Simmons said. “It’s something we’ve done in recent games, but failed to accomplish today.”

In the second game, tournament MVP Andrew Ornoch opened up the scoring, adding to his four goal total on the weekend.

UMD teammate Jason Massoglia scored the insurance goal to close out the tournament.

“In the first half we played well and did what we needed to do,” NIU freshman Steve Kolzow said. “We came out slow in the second half and didn’t look like we wanted to play. And again, we didn’t finish any of our chances on goal.”