A deep sigh of relief was breathed by head coach Willy Roy and the NIU men’s soccer team after its 2-1 overtime victory at Buffalo. It was NIU’s first MAC win of the season.

Thomas Meiner struck quickly for NIU when he knocked in a one-timer, with the assist from Matt Stukenberg 7:22 into the game.

The Huskies held the Bulls (5-6-1, 2-2-0 MAC) scoreless for the rest of the first half. This was the third time all season that the Huskies went into the half with the lead.

“The defense played extremely well tonight,” assistant coach Karsten Roy said.

The NIU defense and netminder Steve Goletz held strong in the second half. That was until Buffalo’s Michael Battiste launched a 30-yard boot over a fallen Goletz to put the Bulls on the board and take the game into overtime.

The Huskies held a 2-2 record heading into overtime and were not to be denied.

Both teams’ defenses held strong in the first overtime, not allowing either offense to score, so a second overtime was needed.

Freshman Eric O’Reilly couldn’t have picked a better time to collect his first goal in a Huskie uniform.

Just three minutes and 20 seconds into the second overtime was all it took for NIU to get out of its funk and win its third game of the season.

“We put together a strong effort as a team,” Karsten Roy said. “It was an exciting game and now we can move forward to the next one.”

Steve Polkowski, taking the place of a suspended Jason Sullivan, was praised by Karsten Roy for his play.

Only 40 hours later, the Huskies prepared for their last home game of the season against Western Michigan (3-8-2, 1-4-0).

“After a long road trip we weren’t very sharp,” Willy Roy said.

The Huskies were just sharp enough to notch a 1-0 squeaker on Senior Recognition Day at Huskie Soccer Field.

The day began by honoring seniors Rasih Pala, Nick Park and Peter Agrimson, who played their final home game of their NIU soccer careers on Sunday.

In a physical matchup that included nine yellow cards, the NIU defense held strong as Goletz saved eight shots to record his first shutout in a Huskie uniform.

“I couldn’t be more excited,” Goletz said. “The D helped out a lot, and with Peter being back there, I knew things would be OK.”

The Huskies’ lone goal was scored by Meiner with 90 seconds left in the first half.

Brandon Smick smacked a pass to a bolting Doug Whitesel who then hit Meiner with a picture-perfect crossing pass.

Meiner jetted between two WMU defenders to beat Broncos’ goalkeeper Ian Spooner with a header for his second goal in as many games.

“That was just a tremendous effort all the way around,” Karsten Roy said.

With 6:51 left in the game, WMU’s Keon Jordan collected his second yellow card, giving the Huskies a 11 on 10 advantage.

With just under one minute, Brendon Parrish hit Bernhard Hagevik with a pass that beat the Broncos’ defense, but Hagevik’s shot missed to the left.

Agrimson was happy that the Huskies were able to put together their first winning streak in two years.

“It is something special to remember,” Agrimson said.