The Downers Grove North High School tandem of freshmen Mike Corvo and Matt Corcoran led the NIU men’s soccer team to its second win of the season Sunday.

As goalkeeper, Corcoran had four saves and recorded his first career shutout for the Huskies (2-7-2) in a 1-0 victory over Western Illinois (6-4-1) at Huskie Soccer Field.

“Everyone on defense was communicating a lot better,” said senior Jason Sullivan. “We didn’t let their forwards turn upfield and distribute the ball. We didn’t allow any quality shots on goal.”

Corvo’s rebound with 2:59 left was his first goal in a Huskies uniform. The 5-foot-4 freshman was moved up to midfielder from defense for Matt Stukenberg, who served his suspension for being thrown out of NIU’s game against DePaul for arguing with an official.

“I’m so happy for the team right now because they stepped up to the challenge today,” NIU coach Steve Simmons said.

At the end of the game, Leatherneck goalkeeper Armen Tonainse (five saves) deflected a point-blank shot by forward Tony Deldin. Junior Bernhard Hagevik tried to knock in the rebound, but had his shot deflected by a WIU defender before Corvo scored the winning goal.

On paper, the Leathernecks looked as if they had the Huskies right where they wanted them.

WIU outshot NIU 22-14 and held a five-to-nothing advantage over the Huskies in corner kicks.

“We need to be sharp on defense, and we’ve done that lately,” Simmons said. “We allowed a lot of restarts, but were able to defend the corners and free kicks as well.”

The Leathernecks were whistled for 17 fouls, the same number of fouls the Huskies were whistled for in the second half alone. There were 44 fouls called in the game, and NIU received three of the four yellow cards issued.

“We were able to keep the play in front of us, which was important,” Simmons said. “Now we have to build on this momentum and carry it forward.”