Northern Illinois 5, Bowling Green 2
Boxscore
DEKALB, Ill. – Three goals in less than five minutes early in the second half helped the 19th-ranked Northern Illinois University men's soccer team to a 5-2 victory over Bowling Green on Thursday night (Nov. 11) in the Mid-American Conference Tournament Semifinals at the NIU Soccer Complex.
Zachariah Thomas (Burnaby, British Columbia/Moscrop Secondary) opened the scoring just before halftime before Roque Viegas Jr. (Sao Paulo, Brazil/Syracuse), Nick Markanich (Bourbonnais, Ill./Bradley-Bourbonnais) and Pepe Martinez (Sant antoni de vilamajor, Spain/Western Michigan) scored in the 53rd, 57th and 58th minutes, respectively. Miguel Maynez Jr. (El Paso, Texas/New Mexico) tacked on another goal in the 67th as the Huskies advance to the MAC Championship Game for the first time since 2012.
The Huskies will meet third-seeded Georgia State in the final on Sunday at 12 p.m. as the Panthers defeated West Virginia, 1-0, in Thursday's first semifinal.
"I thought we were tremendous," said NIU head coach Ryan Swan. "We have so much respect for Bowling Green and what they have accomplished recently. They were the defending MAC Champions, and we know it is always going to be a battle, and we challenged our guys to step up to that battle, but also remain composed on the ball. It is a big ask, but I thought were tremendous today and you saw it in our attacking play."
NIU (13-2-2) wasted no time in attacking the Bowling Green goal as Viegas took a shot from 10 yards out in the opening minute that went over the bar.
Bowling Green (10-5-3) had its first scoring chance of the night in the seventh minute when Roberto Fernandez Garrido got free just in front of the NIU box. NIU goalkeeper Martin Sanchez (Bloomington, Minn./Kennedy) came off his line to take the ball from him and thwart the Falcon attack.
Just after the half-hour mark, Bowling Green had another threatening chance as Sergi Martinez headed a Kale Nichols' cross over Sanchez's head and out of play.
Thomas broke the deadlock in the 41st minute, just 27 seconds after coming on as a substitute. The freshman collected a pass from Martinez, dribbled to the top of the Bowling Green box and let loose as shot into the top right corner, in off the bottom of the crossbar past Falcon goalkeeper Brendan Graves to give NIU a 1-0 lead heading into halftime.
"It was essential after we scored that we saw the half out," said Swan. "As we saw the last time we played them, they were still going to be dangerous (after going down a goal), so it was important to get to the half. But in the second half when we got the second goal, the game got stretched and it played into our favor and allowed us to pick a few more spaces to play into and our guys are exceptional when that happens."
NIU doubled its lead eight minutes after the interval. Viegas stole a pass from about 25 yards outside the Bowling Green box and ripped a low shot across goal and into the back of the net for his first goal of the season and a 2-0 Huskies advantage.
Four minutes later, the MAC Player of the Year Nick Markanich got on the scoresheet. Thomas brought the ball up the right wing and played it through to Markanich who took it all the way to the six-yard box and shot it right through Graves' legs to put NIU up 3-0.
The Huskies were not done scoring. Just 27 seconds after Markanich's tally, Martinez rolled a shot past Graves on the counter to make the score for NIU's fourth of the night before the hour mark.
Maynez became the fifth Huskie to score on the night with his goal in the 67th minute. Markanich fired a shot toward goal that Graves could only palm into the air, right into the run of Maynez who fired it into the net from close range to give the Huskies a 5-0 lead.
Bowling Green scored a pair of consolation goals as Zach Buescher ended the Huskie clean sheet in the 68th minute and Jacob Erlandson added another goal in the 81st minute, but the night belonged to the Huskies who remained unbeaten at home this season and beat Bowling Green for the first time since 2015.
Tickets for Sunday's MAC Championship Game will be available at the game, admission is $5 general admission. Students from the participating schools will be admitted free of charge with a student ID and the match will be live streamed free of charge on NIUHuskies.com.
