KALAMAZOO, Mich. – The Western Michigan men's soccer team battled the cold, the rain, the win and the snow en route to a 3-1 win at the WMU Soccer Complex over Northern Illinois on Sunday.
The (4-2-0, 2-2-0 MAC) Broncos picked up goals from
Brendan Skinner,
Daniel Nimick and
Dylan Sing. Redshirt sophomore goalkeeper
Isaac Walker made three saves to earn his third victory of the season. WMU outshot NIU 11-5 overall and 5-4 in shots on goal.
"It was a great performance from the guys today," said head coach
Chad Wiseman. "I thought the first half was our best 45 minutes of the season so far. We were strong in possession and created 4-5 great scoring chances and got two of them in the net."
Western Michigan's first two goals came under 10 minutes apart from each other. The Broncos line up for a corner kick in the 29th minute. The corner was played short to Nimick by the right corner flag. Nimick crossed the ball into the box and
Jaylen Shannon headed it from the far post to Skinner at the near post and WMU's captain headed it into the net for his first collegiate goal.
Nimick pushed the lead to 2-0 in the 38th minute. The sophomore defender got the ball from
Gavin Wigg and surprised everyone by firing a low line-drive into the bottom-left corner of the net from approximately 30 yards out. The goal was his second of the season.
Early in the second half WMU's
Brennan Creek and NIU's Camilo Estrada were both given straight red cards, pushing both teams down to 10 men.
"The red cards definitely changed the game," Wiseman said. "When you're up 2-0, you don't really want to see a momentum shift like that. Our leadership pulled us through and I'm very proud of them."
The Huskies scored in the 80th minute to cut WMU's lead in half. Nick Markanich scored his MAC-leading fifth goal of the season, finishing off a cross from Carlos Valdez to make the score 2-1.
Sing responded with his team-leading third goal of the season in the 87th to put the game away.
Mike Melaragni headed a 50-50 ball past the NIU back line and Sing tracked it down, finishing it into the bottom-right corner of the net to make it 3-1.
"The three points at home today was a must," Wiseman added. "We're right back in the thick of things. The MAC is one of the strongest conferences in the nation and the final three weeks are going to be fun."
WMU's next schedule game is at West Virginia on Sunday, April 4 at 1 p.m. The game can be seen live on ESPN+.
