Willy Roy and the NIU men’s soccer team kept the undefeated streak against Western Illinois University alive Friday with a 1-0 win over the host Leathernecks.

Roy’s teams have won all nine meetings between the teams since he began coaching at NIU.

Rasih Pala, with help from the NIU defense, recorded his first shutout of the season. Pala also had three saves in the victory.

“Western Illinois possessed the ball, but we didn’t dive in and make mistakes,” Roy said. “The guys stayed focused very well, and Rasih did a much better job coming off the line to knock balls away. He had good command of his box.”

On the offensive end, Bernhard Hagevik scored his first goal of the season at the 15:40 mark, assisted by senior captain Nick Park.

“That was really a very nice goal,” Roy said. “He played the ball off his chest and finished the scoring chance like we need him to do. It was good to see us play 90 minutes of solid soccer and not give up a goal at the end. We stayed focused and stood our ground well. We probably aren’t going to score too many goals this season, but if we stay focused and finish chances like that, we can still be successful.”

The Huskies weren’t as successful on Sunday as they looked to snap a five-game home losing streak when Bradley University came to town.

The No. 24 ranked Braves wasted little time in letting NIU know who was going to run the show at the Huskie Soccer Field.

The youth of Bradley took over as two of its freshmen and three sophomores scored all of the Braves’ goals in a 5-0 win.

The Braves’ Joe Ducci scored the first goal seven minutes and 40 seconds into the game after a hand-ball was called, giving Bradley a free kick at the top of the penalty area.

The Braves continued their onslaught when Ryan Raschke scored on a rebound from 10 yards out at the 20:09 mark and Preston Good floated a 25-yard kick over a fallen Pala at the 13:34 mark, giving Bradley a 3-0 lead at the half.

Luke Kreamalmeyer scored the fourth unassisted goal of the day for Bradley at the 20:15 mark and Greg Davis, assisted by Adam Hage, topped off the scoring for the day.

“We were definitely a tired team today, both physically and mentally,” Roy said. “Our choices weren’t good, our passes were bad and we couldn’t do things we normally would. It’s very frustrating to have as many individual mistakes as we did, and we got punished every time.”

The Huskies’ offense could not get past the brick wall that is Bradley’s goalkeeper Chris Dunsheath, who posted his fourth shutout of the season. NIU was outshot 16-6 on shots on goal and 34-13 on overall shots.

NIU (2-6-0) remains winless at home and has one more game remaining before they begin MAC play against Bowing Green on Oct. 4.