Some teams get all the breaks.

In Saturday’s match against Wisconsin, the NIU men’s soccer team was the recipient of a break that decided the match.

Thirty minutes into the second half, Rob Berkley sent a harmless lead pass into the Wisconsin zone. The pass was touched back to goalie Moriba Atiba Baker by a Wisconsin defender.

As the goalie went to kick the ball, a rush by Doug Whitesel caused Baker to take his eye off the ball and miss the attempt. The ball then continued on its original path and rolled harmlessly into the back of the net.

The miscue proved to be the difference, as NIU held off a late-game charge by the Badgers to win 3-2.

Before the mistake by Baker, NIU got two goals from Bernhard Hagevick.

After missing the first 10 games of the season with an injury, Hagevick picked a good time to score his first two collegiate goals.

“I’m thrilled for Bernhard because he had two great goals today,” coach Willie Roy said. “That’s what we’ve been waiting for. He’s very dangerous in the box because he knows what to do.”

The first goal came at 9:07 when Hagevick headed a Matt Stukenberg corner kick past Baker for a 1-0 lead.

The one-goal lead would not stand up for long. Just three minutes later, Dominic DaPra took a lead pass from Nicolas Aguilar and put the breakaway passed NIU goaltender Rasih Pala.

Hagevick countered late in the first half with an eight-yard score from the left of center giving NIU a 2-1 lead heading into halftime.

In the second half, Wisconsin outshot the Huskies 6-1 but were only able to put one goal in the net.

Wisconsin got a goal late in the second half from Dave Martinez pulling the visitors within one. However, the Badgers were not able to overcome Bakers miscue and the Huskies prevailed 3-2.

“I’m really happy for the team, but I’m not happy with the types of goals we gave up,” Roy said. “We have the potential to be a much better team than our record shows.”

On Sunday, the Huskies were hurt by the loss of three starters and could manage only a tie with winless Northwestern.

Phil Diehl and Jason Sullivan received their fifth yellow cards in Friday’s match against Wisconsin, and Matt Stukenberg served a mandatory one-match suspension for his red card foul on that same day. As a result, a NIU lineup, including five freshman starters, ended the team’s 14-year win streak with their in-state rivals.

“We were missing several starters, so our freshmen got a chance to play a lot of minutes today, and they did well for themselves,” head coach Willie Roy said.

Following the script from most of the season, NIU (4-10-1) fell behind early on a windy day at Huskie Stadium.

Four minutes into the second half, Daniel Doman took a John Dahlquist corner kick and put it past NIU keeper Rasih Pala for the first goal of the game.

Thirteen minutes later, Peter Agrimson put the equalizer past Wildcat goaltender Adam Grossman. Agrimson’s blast came from 25 yards out on a direct free kick. The Huskies then took their first lead of the day 17 minutes later when Jason Tithof lobbed a shot past new NIU goalkeeper Ryan Peterson.

Unfortunately for the Huskies, the lead would last only two minutes as Wildcat Victor Boni scored from four yards out to send the game into overtime.

In the extra frame, the Huskies outshot the Wildcats (0-11-1) 13-1 but were unable to get the game winner into the net.

“That’s the story of our whole season: missed opportunities,” Roy noted. “The wind didn’t make things easy, but I was proud of our effort today. We were very aggressive and played very hard, especially Rob Berkley. But we have to finish our scoring chances. Now we have to regroup and focus on our next match.”