Oct. 27, 2002
The University of Kentucky men’s soccer team captured its second-consecutive Mid-American Conference victory with a 2-1 come-from-behind win against Northern Illinois on Sunday at the UK Soccer Complex.
Chris McDaniel, one of six seniors honored before the match, scored the Wildcats’ first goal, moving him into a tie for sixth all-time in goals scored at Kentucky. Freshman Anthony Peters scored the gamewinner in the 79th minute; it was the first goal of his collegiate career.
The Wildcats started slowly, giving up an early goal for the third consecutive game. Northern Illinois’ Bernhard Hagevik put the Huskies on the board in the 15th minute when he took a pass from Thomas Meiner and slipped the ball past the near post. The teams would battle through the first half without another goal.
In the second half, Kentucky picked up the pace. In the 54th minute, a corner kick from junior Nathan Fleetwood made its way to the far post where McDaniel was waiting to bury it in the back of the net. It was Fleetwood’s team-leading sixth assist of the year.
The Cats controlled most of the second half, taking eight shots to NIU’s four. In the 79th minute, UK’s persistence paid off when freshman Dani Kamras served a cross to Peters, whose header past the far post was the go-ahead goal. Freshman goalkeeper Andy Gruenebaum made three key saves in the match to protect the UK lead.
“After not playing well in the first half, we played great in the second,” Coach Ian Collins said. “We came out and dominated the game. All we have to do is solve those problems that we had in the beginning of the match.”
The Wildcats will wrap-up their regular season on Friday, Nov. 1, when they travel to Akron, Ohio, to face the Zips at 7:30 p.m. That match will determine the teams’ placement in the Mid-American Conference Tournament, to be played in Huntington, W.V., Nov. 8-10.
1 2 FKentucky 0 2 2Northern Illinois 1 0 1
Scoring SummaryNIU Hagevik (Meiner) 14:42UK McDaniel (Fleetwood) 53:17UK Thompson (Martinko) 78:05
Shots: UK 10; NIU 6Saves: UK 3; NIU 2Corners: UK 9; NIU 1Fouls: UK 18; NIU 19Cards: UK 1; NIU 0Attendance: 735
