Halfway through Northwestern’s Sunday afternoon nonconference clash with Division III Trine, sophomore forward Italo Addimandi felt he couldn’t get a step right. But when Addimandi told coach Russell Payne he could hardly trap a ball, Payne promised his time would come.
“I told Italo, ‘I don’t care if you can’t trap 100 balls, the 101st ball, you go for it,’” Payne said. “‘The 102nd ball, you go for it. Eventually, you’re going to trap it, you’re going to get your shot off and it’s gonna go in.’”
Checking back into the match in the 67th minute, Addimandi needed just six minutes to drive into the box and draw a penalty kick.
With a window of space, Addimandi fired perhaps the goal of the season off his non-dominant left foot, bookending a 4-0 victory for the Wildcats (6-5, 0-4 Big Ten) against the Thunder (2-6, 0-0 MIAA).
“I was running with confidence,” Addimandi said. “Coach talked to me at the half and gave me confidence. He told me, ‘Take your chances, shoot, dribble at the guy. I went in, I’m not a lefty, but I just saw the shot, took it (and) the keeper couldn’t get it.”
With his second tally of the season, Addimandi became NU’s leading scorer. The sophomore missed the entire 2023 campaign after he sustained a major knee injury prior to his first year on campus.
Still, Payne said he knew the Miami native would rise to the potential his staff saw on the recruiting trail.
“We had no doubt at all that he would return to be a guy that could help this team,” Payne said. “He’s one of the fittest guys coming back this fall. It’s just a matter of time for him to get his touch and sharpness back. It means the world. He’s the heart and soul of this team.”
The ’Cats entered the game on the back of four consecutive conference defeats. Payne said his squad had played well enough to win each match, but the results didn’t fall in its favor.
With a bye week in Big Ten play, his staff set the matchup with Trine well in advance, aptly predicting the conference slate’s grueling nature.
“We figured this would be a good way for the guys to rest themselves — not knowing we’d be in the moment we’re in right now,” Payne said. “This is exactly the game we needed to play for the guys to reestablish that conviction.”
NU opened the scoring just nine minutes into the match when sophomore left back Fritz Volmar lofted a through ball to sophomore midfielder Tyler Glassberg. Thunder goalkeeper Aidan McGonagle parried Glassberg’s shot to graduate student defender Brandon Clagette, who tucked away his first goal of the season.
Although the ’Cats rattled off 10 first-half shots, Clagette’s tally marked the halftime difference between the two sides. Payne said he expected a feeling-out period Saturday, especially with the team’s recent struggles.
“We grew into the game,” Payne said. “I knew there was going to be cobwebs those first 30-45 minutes. There was going to be that little bit of feeling of the past games we’ve had: Is it going to happen? But that’s life, man.”
Redshirt senior forward Akinjide Awujo, who didn’t find the back of the net in his first 10 games with the Wildcats, converted off graduate student forward Thaddaeus Dewing’s low-driven feed in the 58th minute.
When Addimandi drew the penalty kick, it was Dewing’s opportunity to break his scoring duck. Staring down McGonagle on a stutter-step run-up, Dewing slotted his first goal with his new squad into the bottom left corner. The Air Force transfer said the moment was a long time coming.
“Collectively, we came out with a mission,” Dewing said. “We wanted to put a few goals in the back of the net, and we wanted to have a clean sheet … Today was about coming out, gaining confidence as a team and individually, and I think we did that.”
Addimandi’s wonder strike put the finishing touches on NU’s most productive scoring output since Sept. 24, 2023’s 4-2 win over Ohio State. With Payne resting junior goalkeeper Rafael Ponce de León, freshman goalkeeper Dominic Pereira earned his first-career start and clean sheet, recording one save Sunday.
The ’Cats will return to Big Ten play Friday against Rutgers in Piscataway.
The Scarlet Knights (4-5-2, 1-2-1) are fresh off a 3-1 victory over No. 8 Wisconsin.
“We need one-game winning streaks,” Payne said. “The next three points are the most important … If we take care of our one-game winning streaks, we don’t have to worry about the other stuff.”
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