With two conference games under their belt, the men’s soccer team finds themselves at the bottom of their conference. The team lost to both Marshall and Akron in the past two weeks and face of against their third MAC opponent, Northern Illinois, this Sunday.
The fact the Falcons are last in the division, however, is not the only thing that may have the Falcons’ heads down half way through the season. Sunday’s game will not only be a chance for the Falcons to get their first conference win, it is also a chance to get their first overall victory of the season.
Under first year head coach Fred Thompson the Falcons are 0-12 heading into Sunday’s game and currently have the worst overall record in the MAC. Akron is leading the MAC in the early stage of conference play with a 2-0 conference record and are 7-2-1 overall. The Zips are followed closely behind by Kentucky, Marshall and Sunday’s opponent Northern Illinois.
The Huskies are in the middle of the conference with a 1-1 record and have had a successful first half of the season with a 7-4 record overall. The Huskies are ranked second in the conference for goals allowed, 11, while netting 16. The Falcons, on the other hand, have had trouble keeping their opponent out of the net. So far this season the Falcons have allowed a conference worst 44 goals. The 44 goals given up by the Falcons is nearly double that of Marshall, who is second to last in the same category. Other than the large amount of goals given up, the Falcons have also struggled scoring goals and have only found the back of the net 9 times.
The Huskies are currently coming off an away loss to Marshall by a score of 3-1. Prior to Sunday’s loss, however, the Huskies were on a long winning streak. During the 6 game streak they defeated several strong teams including the University of Wisconsin, Purdue and Western Michigan.
This weekend the Falcons are also hoping to end one streak while keeping another one alive. A win this weekend would stop their losing streak at 12 while continuing their winning streak against Northern Illinois. The Falcons have defeated the Huskies three times in the past two years, including a 2-1 win over the Huskies in the quarter finals of last seasons conference tournament.
Following Sunday’s afternoon game in Illinois the Falcons continue with more conference play. The next few games have the Falcons at home against Buffalo, followed by two away games against conference teams Kentucky and Western Michigan.
