Twenty to 30 miles-per-hour winds, temperatures dropping into the 30s, darkness setting in—sounds like a scene from S.E. Hinton’s “The Outsiders.” No, the scene was the NIU soccer practice field.

The Huskies wrapped up their season Sunday with a 1-1 overtime tie against Mid-Continent Conference foe Cleveland State.

One hundred and twenty minutes of soccer were played on a cold, wet and dark afternoon that ended NIU’s season with an overall record of 6-9-2, conference record of 3-3-1 and home field record of 3-3-1.

The Vikings opened up early, tallying their only goal four minutes into the match when a defensive mix-up ended in a Kevin Sipsock goal.

A Huskie defenseman tried to pass the ball back to goalkeeper Jeff McCall when the pass went awry and skipped out of a diving McCall’s hands and left the ball sitting three yards in front of the net with no keeper. Sipsock then tapped the ball in.

McCall and the Huskies kept the Vikings scoreless for the remaining 115-plus minutes.

NIU was finally rewarded when sophomores Derek Niepomnik and Tim Prerost combined for a score 10 minutes into the second half. The goal was Prerost’s third of the year.

“We did everything right except put the ball in the net,” NIU coach Willy Roy said after the game.

He was very happy with the way his team played considering the weather conditions: “I can’t knock them.”

The weather conditions were so bad that when Cleveland State senior goalkeeper Phil Ventre was pulled in the second half to give freshman Jason Krnac some playing time, he came into the press box and said, “It felt so good to get out of there.”

NIU outshot CSU 28-12 and had 16 shots on goal to the Vikings’ five. The only Viking shot on goal in the first half was Sipsock’s goal. Stellar goalkeeping by Ventre and Krnac was the only thing that kept NIU from a blowout.

“It could have been a five or six to one ball game,” said Roy. “Opportunities were there; I’m very proud of the team.”

NIU says goodbye to seniors Dave Weichman, Todd Moore and Craig Williams, all who had good games Sunday.

“I wish them well and hope they had a wonderful time playing,” Roy said. “I will be proud to see them get their degrees.”