Two nights, two identical scorelines, two wins.
Northwestern’s men’s and women’s soccer both won with strong defense at Martin Stadium on consecutive nights, taking two wins by the same score. The women beat the visiting Oregon Ducks 1-0 on Thursday, while the men held off Michigan 1-0 on Friday, despite playing nearly an hour a man down.
Women’s soccer: Northwestern 1, Oregon 0
The story of this game came within a 45-second burst about midway through the first half. After a shot by junior midfielder Ava Goodin was saved by the Oregon goalkeeper
at 22′, Northwestern kept the pressure up with another shot off the rebound by Keira Wagner, making way for a Wildcats corner. Six seconds later, Goodin got revenge for her first blocked shot, heading it in from the corner with an assist from senior forward Megan Norkett, giving the Wildcats their first and only goal of the game.
From then on, the night belonged to the Wildcats’ backline and sophomore goalkeeper Nyamma Nelson, an Oregon native. The Ducks outshot the Wildcats 13-9 and won the corner battle 4-1, but Nelson was there every time, racking up four saves. Two of those saves came in a last-minute first-half Oregon push, with Nelson turning away two shots from the Ducks, both in the 45th minute.
Oregon also pushed late in the second half, with two corners going its way. The biggest stop of the night came at 88′, when Nelson denied a free kick and a header went sky-high before she got a hand on it to force a corner.
With the win, Northwestern moves to 4-4-3 overall and 2-1-1 in Big Ten play, while Oregon falls to 6-2-2 and 1-2-1.
Men’s soccer: Northwestern 1, Michigan 0
Friday night’s game was all about survival for the Wildcats.
Senior midfielder Peter Riesz was the lone goal scorer of the night for Northwestern, breaking free of the Wolverine defensive line at 15′ and chipping it over the Michigan goalkeeper for the score. The goal was Northwestern’s only shot on target all night.
Two minutes later, the game started to turn on its head. Sophomore defender Andrew Johnson picked up a yellow card at 17′. Then, at 32′, Johnson received his second yellow card of the night and was sent off, leaving the Wildcats to play the remaining 58 minutes of the game a man down with a one-goal lead.
Miraculously, the Wildcats did just that. Michigan outshot Northwestern 8-3, but only two were on target, and redshirt sophomore goalkeeper Dominic Pereira saved both. Seniors Fritz Volmar and Bryant Mayer and first-year Josue Pfrommer all played all 90 minutes on the defensive line, keeping the Wolverines scoreless.
The remarkable win pushes the Wildcats to 5-3-1 and 2-1 in the Big Ten, while Michigan drops to 2-3-2 and remains winless in conference play at 0-2-1.
Up Next
The women will stay home to face Indiana at Martin Stadium on Sunday for a 1 p.m. CT kickoff. The men face a tougher task as they build off the historic upset of No. 4 Maryland as they head to Piscataway, N.J., to take on No. 22 Rutgers on Friday, Oct. 2, at 6 p.m. CT.
