EVANSTON, Ill. – Northwestern scored a trio of early goals as the Rutgers men's soccer team fell, 3-0, to the Wildcats on a blustery Sunday afternoon at Martin Stadium.
Northwestern's Tommy Katsiyiannis netted the Wildcats' first two goals, scoring the game-winner in the fifth minute off a rebound on a corner kick. He logged his second goal in the 20
th minute off his own rebound, while teammate Mac Mazzola rounded out scoring in the 25
th minute off a takeaway in the backfield.
"Obviously we got off to a bad start giving up a goal five minutes into the game," said head coach
Dan Donigan. "We didn't get off to a good start, put ourselves into a hole and couldn't climb back into the match. We had some opportunities to make some plays. We had portions of the game where we had the ball for decent lengths of time, but we still never really tested their backline or made them work defensively to get ourselves back into the game. We simply didn't do enough on the day to give ourselves the chance to fight and compete and work our way back into the match. I give credit to Northwestern in coming out and doing what they needed to do."
Rutgers'
Rafael Pereira made six saves in the loss while Wildcat netminder Robbie White stopped six of the Scarlet Knights' 13 shots.
Rutgers (3-10-1, 0-6-0 Big Ten) and Northwestern both registered 13 shots, while the Scarlet Knights held a 5-4 edge in corner opportunities. Freshman
Vincent Borden led RU with four attempts. Senior
Niel Guzman logged three shots, including an attempt midway through the second half from distance resulting in White
leaping to prevent the ball from sneaking in underneath the crossbar.
The Rutgers men's soccer team returns home to Yurcak Field for the final three games of the regular season. The homestand begins on Wednesday, Oct. 18 with Lafayette in a nonconference matchup at 7 p.m.
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