Cleats dug up the grass and the ball soared through the air, and no, this wasn’t football practice.

The NIU men’s soccer team finished in a 1-1 tie with Wisconsin-Parkside in the team’s first exhibition game of the fall.

A loss to the Huskies in a spring exhibition game on March 27 left UWP in search of revenge, but they couldn’t hang onto their early 1-0 lead.

“We need to tighten things up defensively,” NIU coach Steve Simmons said. “We haven’t changed anything since last spring.”

NIU senior captain Andy Champion smashed a rebound home off freshman Cody Russell’s shot to tie the game at one with just under four minutes remaining.

“That was great for Andy to get that goal,” Simmons said. “But we still need to tighten things up on defense.”

UWP scored 16 minutes into the game when forward Dustin Wagner crossed his shot into the back-left corner of the net.

NIU goalkeeper Brent Hartman, a junior transfer from Arizona, blocked Wagner’s initial shot, but ended up on the other side of the net, eliminating any chance of stopping Wagner’s second shot.

“We’re not quite there yet because there are a lot of details and movements off the ball that we need to work on to help with our spacing,” Simmons said.

At the end of regulation the game was called by the coaches, who decided not to play overtime.

Bringing back alumni

Before the Huskies held their first official game of the season, Simmons held true to the NIU men’s soccer tradition by hosting the annual men’s alumni soccer game on Saturday.

The score was tied at one 15 minutes into the game before the current men’s team turned up the heat for an eventual 11-2 win in a game that is meant to honor former players and get NIU prepared for the season.

“About 95 percent of the game is for the alums,” Simmons said. “The other five percent is for our guys to get a bit of a training session in.”

The Huskies will play one last exhibition game this Saturday against Oregon State in the Baymont Inn MAC/PAC-10 challenge. Simmons coached at OSU before coming to NIU last season.