Despite collecting seven wins in 34 chances over the past two seasons, the NIU men’s soccer team has had no problem knocking out Western Illinois.

At 5:30 p.m. today at MacKenzie Alumni Field the Huskies will look to take a 13th-straight game against the Leathernecks in both team’s first game of the regular season.

“Any time we have to take a trip in a van, we want to get it done,” NIU coach Steve Simmons said. “The key for us will be to come out intense right off the kickoff.”

WIU is coming off an 11-5-3 season and has not defeated the Huskies since October 3, 1986.

Second Team All-Mid-Continental sophomores Kosuke Kimura, who came over from Japan, and Nowaf Jaman, Kuwait, will lead the Leathernecks’ attack against the NIU defense.

In turn, Simmons has decided to start sophomore Steve Goletz in net for the Huskies after watching film from NIU’s three exhibition games. Junior transfer Brent Hartman will be listed as the back-up, and sophomore Matt Corcoran, who started 13 of 18 games last season, will be the No. 3 man.

Simmons also decided to move NIU’s leader in points (8) last season, junior Tony Deldin, to midfielder, and will start senior and Second Team All-MAC selection Bernhard Hagevik and sophomore Kevin Woerner at the forward spots.

“It will be a big change,” Deldin said. “But it will help to have a group of guys in the middle who have been around and know what to do.”