KALAMAZOO, Mich.- The Western Michigan men's soccer team rolled to a 3-0 victory over visiting Northern Illinois Saturday at the WMU Soccer Complex. The two sides played a scoreless first half, but WMU erupted for three second half goals.
“I thought we had a great performance today from start to finish,” said WMU head coach
Chad Wiseman. “We had a sour taste in our mouths from the tie last weekend at Buffalo, where we thought we gave some conference points away. Today the guys left no doubt in the result.”
With the win, Western Michigan improved its overall record to 7-4-3 overall and 1-0-1 in the Mid-American Conference. It was the third straight victory over NIU in the all-time series.
Sophomore
Hunter Vandenboom gave Western Michigan a 1-0 lead in the 51st minute, scoring his second goal of the season.
Greg Timmer and
Nick Wysong connected passes deep in NIU territory and Timmer slotted a ball over for Vandenboom to finish at the near post.
Timmer put more distance between WMU and NIU in the 69th minute, flicking in a header off a corner kick by
Sean Conerty. Conerty's assist was his MAC-leading ninth of the season.
Junior
Connor Furgason sealed the win with his team-leading fourth goal in the 71st minute. The big center back scored on a bicycle kick in the box following a corner kick by freshman
Logan Wright. Wysong also was credited with an assist on the goal, for his second point of the match.
“We scored some class goals today,” Wiseman said. “NIU came out and were very physical with us, they compacted the field as their lines were very tight. We made a few adjustments at half and took our chances extremely well.”
Western Michigan's defense allowed just eight shots in the game. Redshirt freshman goalkeeper
Drew Shepherd played the entire 90 minutes and recorded his first career shutout with three saves.
“Our backline was rock solid, they were never really able to generate anything dangerous in the run of play,” commented Wiseman. “We were connected and organized for 90 minutes. Drew played well in goal coming off his line on dead balls when needed, congrats to him for his first career shutout.
“With only five MAC games, you have to take care of business at home. The guys did that today.”
Western Michigan is on the road for its next three games, beginning with Akron next Saturday, Oct. 25. WMU then heads to Dayton Oct. 28 and closes out the road trip at Bowling Green Nov. 1. The Broncos conclude the regular season at home against West Virginia, Nov. 8.
