Men’s Soccer

With the game tied at zero and time ticking away in the first overtime period against Loyola, Northwestern earned a throw-in deep in its attacking third. After the ball was deflected out of the box, it landed at the feet of senior midfielder Camden Buescher.

“I just tried to create some space with my left foot and tried to make contact as good as could,” Buescher said.

Buescher received the loose ball outside the penalty arc, played a deft touch with his right foot and fired a 23-yard rocket with his left boot that found the back of the net. The goal earned the Wildcats the victory over their Sheridan Road rivals.

The win over the Ramblers (1-3) sparked a two-win weekend for NU (4-1-1) who picked up another 1-0 shutout win Sunday when the Cats defeated UMKC (1-3) at Martin Stadium.

“There is nothing tougher in this world than winning a college soccer game. There is nothing tougher, nothing harder than that,” coach Tim Lenahan said. “There is nobody on your schedule where you just say ‘oh we are going to schedule these guys and this is going to be a win for us.’ and we are going to fill our schedule. That doesn’t exist in college soccer.”

While NU managed only six shots against Loyola on Friday, the Cats had six shots on target alone against UMKC, with the team taking 11 shots in total and earning eight corner kicks in the first 73 minutes of the game.

NU finally broke through 75 minutes into the game Sunday. Graduate defender John Moderwell played a ball over the top of the Kangaroo defense to junior forward Ty Seager, who struck the ball with an outside-of-the-foot shot that sliced away from UMKC keeper Filippo Errico and ricocheted off the far post and in.

“UMKC was really stepping their line pretty quick and pretty high so I just tried to stay onside and follow the defense up,” Seager said. “I saw [Moderwell] had the ball on his left foot and if they stepped up I dropped in quickly behind their line to stay onside as he played it over. The ball bounced a couple times and I was able to put it in the back of the net.”

NU has allowed only three goals this entire season and sophomore goalkeeper Miha Miskovic has earned a shutout in five of the team’s six games. He notched three saves against both Loyola and UMKC.

Lenahan said it is not just the backline who are playing well, but the entire team’s commitment to defense that has led to its good start.

“It starts with your two forwards and their work rate and how hard they work,” Lenahan said. “Those guys have been doing a good job really working hard to initiate the pressure higher.”

NU was without junior defender Andrew McLeod and freshman forward Jose Del Valle this weekend due to injuries. Lenahan said he hopes the two players will be back for Friday’s game against Maryland.

The return of Del Valle, who was injured less than 25 minutes into the first game of the season, should help the offense continue to generate scoring chances.

“We are not going to score five goals every game but we are going to find a way to make a play and keep the other team at zero,” Lenahan said.

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