ONEONTA, NY – Hartwick men's soccer (3-4-2) travels to Dekalb, IL this weekend for its second Mid-American Conference match of the season. The Hawks, who were eliminated from playoff contention on the final day of the regular season with a 2-1 loss to Northern Illinois last year, have a rematch with the Huskies Saturday at 2 p.m. EST.
Gametracker stats will be available for the game as well as a pay-per-view webcast. Links can be found on the Hartwick men's soccer schedule page:
http://www.hartwickhawks.com/schedule.aspx?path=msoc.
The Hawks and Huskies are both tied in the standings with 1-0 records. The winners will put themselves in a good position for a playoff berth with five conference games remaining.
Hartwick, which won 2-0 over Bowling Green last weekend in its MAC opener, has not started conference play 2-0 since the 2009 season when the Hawks made it to the league championship match.
Senior forward
Cleyon Brown (Kingston, Jamaica/Berkshire School) tops the Hawks in scoring this season with five goals and an assist. He ranks second in both points per game and goals per game in the MAC this season. Freshman back
David Styles (Bognor Regis, England/St. Phillip Howard) is second in the league in assists per game and 10
th in points per contest.
Mateo Munarriz (Manizales, Colombia/Colegio Granadino) is 4
th in the MAC in goals against average (1.10).
NIU, the defending MAC champion, entered the season with high expectations and found itself just outside the national top 25 preseason poll in the “receiving votes” category. The Huskies have managed a 2-5-2 record thus far.
Three of Northern Illinois' five losses have been by a single goal with the other two coming to Creighton and New Mexico. Creighton was ranked #3 at the time and New Mexico is currently #5 in the country. The Huskies got their MAC season underway with a 2-0 shutout of Florida Atlantic on September 30.
James Stevenson and Gael Rivera have accounted for six of the Huskies' nine goals this year. Stevenson has three tallies with two assists and Rivera also has found the net on three occasions. Jordan Godsey has a goals against average of 1.33 and three clean sheets.
