On a day celebrating the defending Big Ten champions, Northwestern certainly played the part.
The Wildcats controlled the run of play from the opening whistle on Sunday, cruising to a 2-0 victory over Michigan (2-5-0, 0-1-0 Big Ten). It was NU’s sixth win in its first eight games and its third consecutive shutout.
“Any Big Ten win is a good win,” coach Tim Lenahan said. “We controlled possession at times and we were very efficient with two set piece goals.”
NU (6-0-2, 1-0-0) raced out of the starting gate, earning a corner kick 90 seconds into the game. It was one of five corner kicks in the first half for the Cats. They also had 10 shots, including four on goal in the first 45 minutes.
The turning point of the game came in the 22nd minute when Wolverines defender Dylan Mencia tripped an NU attacker just inches outside the penalty box. Mencia was assessed a yellow card and on the subsequent free kick, the ball somehow found its way through a crowd of bodies and onto the foot of sophomore defender Grant Wilson, who tapped the ball into the net. Senior midfielder Chris Ritter took the free kick and the low drive was deftly deflected by senior midfielder Nick Gendron to Wilson through the pile of players.
“We’ve been working a lot on them in practice recently,” Wilson said. “We didn’t think we were executing well enough so in the past couple of weeks we’ve focused on being positive on set pieces and scoring more (off set pieces) than we’re giving up (off set pieces).”
Michigan chased the ball for a majority of the first half and put up a lackluster attack until the final 15 minutes of the frame. The Wolverines only had three shots in the first half, and all of them came in those 15 minutes. Only one of them reached goalie Tyler Miller, a header in the last two minutes which the sophomore easily dealt with.
The Cats’ team defense kept the Wolverines off the scoreboard and, more importantly, away from Miller’s goal. Michigan only had five shots in the match, only one of which was a quality opportunity. Wilson said the defense has become a more cohesive unit as the season has progressed.
“Our defense is much more organized now,” Wilson said. “The first couple of games we were trying to get everything together. Now that we can work on a solid defense, the back four, all the midfield and the forwards, everyone’s working as a team together.”
In the 54th minute, Mencia made a vicious tackle on Gendron which earned him a second yellow card, resulting in an ejection. With the Wolverines down a man, the Cats took advantage and 10 minutes later struck for another goal off a set piece. This time Wilson’s corner kick found the head of Ritter, who deposited the ball past a sprawling Adam Grinwis for the 2-0 advantage.
The corner kick was a lesson in adapting to the wind of Lakeside Field. Wilson’s kick was supposed to go to the far post, but with the wind swirling off of Lake Michigan, the ball ended up on the near post and Ritter happened to be at the right place at the right time.
After the Cats scored the second goal, they slowed the game down and tried to control the ball. NU’s only offensive chances came when Michigan brought men forward to attack and opened up space in the midfield and defensive third. It was all part of Lenahan’s gameplan after the Wolverines went down a man.
“You’ll get chances because they’re committing so many forward,” Lenahan said. “You just got to be smart and professional and disciplined and we did a good job with that.”
NU has started this season a lot more quickly than it did last year. The Cats were 3-3-2 in their first eight games last season, which included losses to Eastern Illinois and Portland. The NU starting lineup includes eight players who got significant minutes last season, and the experience has shown. Ritter attributes the better start to the more seasoned players. Lenahan, however, credits the difference to how NU has executed on the field this season as opposed to the beginning of the 2011 campaign.
“We gave away games at the beginning of last year,” Lenahan said. “We didn’t get outplayed, we gave away games. Once we stopped giving away games, we were pretty good. This year we didn’t give away games and once you don’t give away games, you’re able to find ways to win games.”
