When Northwestern men’s soccer team’s top scorer, Gerardo Alvarez, came out of Sunday’s game with an injured foot, forward Brad North came in to replace him. And North knew exactly what he had to do.
North hit the back of the net in the 10th minute of Sunday’s game and then assisted on the game-winning goal as NU defeated Wisconsin 2-1 in its final game of the regular season. With Sunday’s win, NU claimed third place in the Big Ten, its highest conference showing in program history.
North’s goal matches the Wildcats’ trend of striking first, which the Cats (12-4-2, 3-2-1) have done in seven of their last eight games.
“It’s always important to set the lead quick and early,” North said. “We come out with high intensity and it sets the tone for the first half.”
On a sunny but blustery day, the Cats were lucky to capitalize first with the wind blowing against them. When the Wisconsin goalkeeper came out of his box to clear the ball, North blocked the clearance and then sent the ball into the net. It was North’s fifth goal of the season, placing him in a four-way team tie for second place in NU scoring with 15 points.
Wisconsin (9-9-0, 2-4-0) answered just more than eight minutes later, when the Badgers’ David Martinez scored on a penalty kick after a handball was called in the box.
The game remained tied until NU scored the game-winner with six minutes remaining. Freshman David Roth connected with North, who then sent the ball toward the back post for midfielder Kevin Earnest to knock it home. Roth’s point raised the single-season assist record he holds to 12, and Earnest’s goal was his second in two games.
“We took it at them in the second half,” junior Dan Carew said. “We got a goal and got out of there.”
The Badgers outshot the Cats 10-5 in the first half and 16-12 in the game, but NU goalkeeper Justin Pines made three stops in each half for the Cats. Pines and the NU defense held off Wisconsin’s Nick Van Sicklen, who leads the Big Ten in scoring and tallied five shots on Sunday.
Pines also earned national recognition last week when he appeared in the Sports Illustrated’s Faces in the Crowd section for his shutout performance on Oct. 17 against Indiana.
With Sunday’s win, the Cats will take on the conference’s sixth-place team, Penn State, on Thursday in the first round of the Big Ten Tournament in Ann Arbor, Mich. The Cats still don’t know if they will have the services of their leading scorer, Alvarez, who left Sunday’s game within the first 10 minutes.
Alvarez recorded an assist when NU and Penn State played to a 2-2 tie in Evanston on Oct. 8.
“(Sunday) was one of our better games,” Lenahan said. “We didn’t have our ‘A’ game, but it was a gutted-out win on the road. It gives us a lot of confidence looking forward to the tournament.”
Reach Courtney McCarty at [email protected].
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