The NIU men’s soccer team journeyed to Las Vegas, Nev., this past weekend. Unfortunately, the Huskies came up one goal short in their first game against the University of New Mexico and faltered the next day as well against UNLV.

UNM scored the first goal of the game at the 29:17 mark, which was the lone goal scored of the first half.

NIU charged back in the second half. Freshman Brendon Parrish broke the ice with his first goal of the season 13 seconds into the half. However, that was the only goal the Huskies could muster as UNM scored one more goal to claim the victory. UNM also outshot the Huskies 15-4.

“Our biggest problem today, our whole team wasn’t sharp,” NIU coach Willy Roy said. “We weren’t hustling like we should, and not making plays. The heat might have had something to do with it, but that’s no excuse because it was just as hot for (UNM). This match should be a wake-up call for our guys, because nobody will give them anything. We need to open our eyes and be sharper.”

Thomas Meiner responded to Roy’s call against UNLV when he stole a pass and knocked in the first goal of the game, and his first collegiate goal, at the 16:05 mark.

Once again NIU’s play dropped as the game continued. UNLV went on to score the last two goals of the half, and add two more in the second half in a 4-1 victory.

“Our biggest problem defensively is that Peter Agrimson is doing a lot of work at sweeper, and everybody is watching him,” Roy said. “There were several individual breakdowns which we need to eliminate. But Thomas Meiner scored a nice goal, and he’s really on track to help us. He had one taken away (on an offside call) Friday night, but he’s working hard for us.”

NIU was outshot by a vast margin once again and only managed four shots on goal for the second game in a row. NIU is now 0-2-0 on the season.

“We played extremely well for most of the first half, but then the heat got to us,” Roy said. “We made three really bad mistakes in the back, and they took advantage of them.”