By Ben LarrisonThe Daily Northwestern
Next stop: St. Louis.
Gerardo Alvarez broke through for his first goals of the season as he led the Wildcats to a 3-0 victory over Cincinnati in the first round of the NCAA tournament Friday in Evanston.
The man teammates call ‘G’ said that after his goal in the seventh minute, he actually blacked out.
“I was so excited,” Alvarez said. “I didn’t know what I just did. I was like, ‘Holy shit, I scored a goal!’ because it’s been so long. But, I mean, it was a great feeling.”
The early goal gave the Cats a first-half lead to work with. The chance came on a cross pass from the left side deep in the Cincinnati half of the field by junior David Roth. As Bearcats keeper Mike Vessells came out to defend, Alvarez made a lunging header to put the ball in the back of the net for a 1-0 NU lead.
The Cats (12-7) controlled the pace for much of the first 30 minutes of play. When Cincinnati (11-6-2) did mount an attack, NU countered for its second goal of the game. In the 33rd minute, freshman Pat Coleman kicked a long pass from around midfield over the heads of the defense to a sprinting Brad North. The senior captain nudged it past a baffled Vessells for the score.
“The ball that Coleman played: unbelievable ball,” North said. “And with the wind (behind it) it would have sailed right over, but it held up long enough for me to get a foot on there.”
Cincinnati held the ball for much of the second half, but the Cats played effective counterattack soccer and had some offensive pushes of its own. After NU keeper Justin Pines made a diving save in the 81st minute, the Cats went on a run that culminated in a penalty call in the Cincinnati box. Alvarez’s penalty kick in the 83rd minute bounced off the left post and past Vessells for his second goal of the game and a 3-0 NU cushion.
North said the Cats were weary of second half letdown similar to the one they suffered a week earlier in the Big Ten tournament. The result was an NU offense that remained aggressive through much of the second.
“We learned our lesson from Penn State,” North said. “We didn’t want to back down … We were going at them, (and) we were going to score goals.”
With the win, NU advances to the second round, where it will face the No. 11 seed Saint Louis (13-4-2) on the road Wednesday. And while the Cats earned their greatest margin of victory on the season against the Bearcats, Alvarez said they can still improve on their play from Friday.
“We’ve played better,” Alvarez said. “I think we’ve still played better before, but we did a great job closing the game, and we made plays when we needed to make them. And sometimes that’s better than playing well.”
Reach Ben Larrison at [email protected].
