ONEONTA, NY – The red-hot Hartwick College men's soccer team hosts Northern Illinois University in a Mid-American Conference battle Saturday night under the lights of Elmore. The Hawks are 1-0 in conference play after a 3-1 win over Buffalo. The Huskies are playing in their MAC opener.
Hartwick is on a roll winning four straight matches dating back to Sept. 13. Over the last four matches, 'Wick has outscored its opposition by a 9-1 margin with six different goal scorers. Last Saturday night, Hartwick knocked off #15 Dartmouth with a 2-0 shutout on Elmore. Dan Summers (Banstead, England/Sutton Grammar) opened the scoring in the 40th minute of play following a Hartwick corner kick. Owen Botting (Billingshurst, England/Heidelberg College) swung the kick into the box where the ball took a series of deflections before Summers volleyed it in past Big Green keeper Sean Donovan for a 1-0 lead. The score remained the same until the 83rd minute when Summers headed in a direct kick from 30 yards away off the foot of junior Michael Cunningham (Dunedin, New Zealand/John McGlasham) to put the game away.
On Monday, Summers was named to the College Soccer News National Team of the Week for his heroics. Jeremy Vuolo (Downingtown, PA/Downingtown West) made two saves in each half to earn his fifth shutout of the season. The junior keeper has allowed just three goals in eight matches this season.
Northern Illinois arrives at Elmore winner of four of its last five matches and shutouts in all four wins in the span. The Huskies downed Oakland 1-0 in the second match of the NIU adidas Invitational and Lafayette 5-0 in the first match of the Northwestern Lakeside Classic. South Carolina blanked the Huskies 1-0 before NIU defeated Oregon State 2-0 and Seattle 3-0 at the OSU Zaher/Hensor Memorial Tournament in Corvallis, OR. Luis De La Cerda leads the Huskies with five goals and an assist in 2009. He also leads the team with two game-winning goals. Brad Horton has four tallies and two assists to bolster the offense and Jordan Godsey has a 0.49 goals against average with 34 saves in 740 minutes of action.
In the two teams' last meeting on Oct. 18, 2008, Northern Illinois scored 2:31 into the second overtime period to complete a 2-1 comeback victory over the Hawks in DeKalb, IL. Austin McCann set up Steven Amaya (Oakland Gardens, NY/Martin Luther King) for a goal to give Hartwick an early lead after just 11 minutes of action. The game stayed 1-1 for close to 65 minutes until a 'Wick player was whistled for a hand ball in the box. Horton converted the subsequent penalty kick to tie the score 14 minutes from the end of regulation. The game would go to overtime where Drew Jeskey scored off a loose ball following a long throw-in to give NIU the win. The loss was Hartwick's first setback in conference play. The Huskies would finish second in the MAC tables at the conclusion of the year and advanced to the conference championship match before falling to Akron.
Hartwick leads the all-time series with a 2-1 record. The Hawks won the first meeting between the two institutions in the 1991 Mayor's Cup by a 1-0 final score. 'Wick earned a 3-0 decision over the Huskies at Elmore Field in 2007 before NIU picked up an overtime win last season.
