Soccer ends losing skid, earns first MAC victory
Central Michigan University soccer ended its three-game losing and goalless streak by defeating Northern Illinois 2-0 on the road Sunday afternoon.
A victory against the Mid-American Conference opponent improves CMU’s record to 2-6-1 (1-1-0 MAC), while NIU drops to 2-7.
“Sometimes finding results in the MAC is challenging,” said Head Coach Peter McGahey. “Every game demands its own intricacies and execution. I thought, today, the players and the staff really were well-prepared and executed the game plan quite well.”
Two goals scored about 10 minutes apart in the first half pushed CMU to the shutout victory.
“They are a good team at manufacturing chances,” McGahey said. “I thought we did a very good job today at shutting those things down.”
Senior midfielder Kaelyn Korte scored the team’s initial goal off the crossbar from 18 yards away with 21:29 played.
Junior defender Taylor Potts added the insurance goal, depositing the ball into the top left corner of the net at the 31:17 mark.
“When you get in a three-game rut like we were over three weeks, you get into a place where you start asking questions and sometimes the confidence can go away,” McGahey said. “The players did a really good job today of pushing through that, showing good confidence to get up on the ball and play Chip soccer.”
The Chippewas tallied three shots on goal and nine shots overall. NIU outshot CMU 12-9.
Freshman goalkeeper Zoie Reed earned her second shutout of her young career, making six saves in the winning effort.
After splitting the weekend road trip in Kalamazoo and DeKalb, the Chippewas can look forward to returning home to their new stadium.
CMU’s next four games will be at home, starting at 6 p.m. on Friday against the Miami (Ohio) Redhawks, who beat the Chippewas 2-0 in last year’s matchup.
