Aug. 25, 2006
NIU-Dayton Box Score (PDF Format)
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NU-Hofstra Box Score (PDF Format)Download Free Acrobat Reader
EVANSTON, Ill.-- Daniel Chille's goal in the 83rd minute broke a 1-1 tie and gave Northwestern a 2-1 victory today over Hofstra in day one of the Fourth Annual Lakeside Classic in Evanston. In game one, Northern Illinois defeated Dayton 2-0. Sunday's action features NIU against Hofstra at 1:30 p.m. before the Wildcats take on Dayton immediately following.
With the score tied at 1-1, junior midfielder David Roth served up a crossing pass from the left wing to Brad North in front of the near post. Battling a Hofstra defender in the air, North deflected the ball towards the center of the goal where Chille was waiting to tap it in for the game-winner.
"We've watched that play a lot," head coach Tim Lenahan said after the game. "Dave Roth to Brad North to the near post. I knew (Roth) was going to break his defender down and North makes the near post run. That's kind of our bread and butter play."
"Hofstra is a very good team. You can see why they've won two (CAA) conference championships in a row in a very good league. We showed some resiliency today. They should have been ahead by a couple goals in the first half, but we battled back. Kevin Valenta made a play to get us a goal back there in the first half. So even though we had no business being in the game in the first half, it's 1-1. Then in the second half we were clearly the better team."
After a 45-minute weather delay, Hofstra struck first in the 31st minute when Rob Youhill found Todd Michael to give the Pride a 1-0 lead. It stayed that way over the next nine minutes with near misses by both teams. But that was until the Wildcats finally tied it up with a goal by Brad North. Valenta and Gerardo Alvarez assisted on the play. Valenta made the final pass from the left side and North was able to shake his defender and fire the ball low just inside the near side post.
"This is a very good win for us in our first time out," Lenahan said. "It was great to see Gerardo bouncing around out there--he's still not 100 percent, but you can tell he certainly has a lot more pop than he had last year. I thought Mark Blades was the player of the game there at left back in his first game. I think he really represented himself well."
Will Briley picked up the win in goal for the Wildcats, playing all 90 minutes and recording five saves. Briley made three saves in the first period to keep NU in the game as the Pride outshot the Wildcats 10-5 in the first period. The second half was another story as the Wildcats owned a 9-5 shot advantage. Tom Johansen picked up the loss, recording six saves for Hofstra.
Game Notes: The game was postponed 45 minutes due to weather four minutes into the game ... Northwestern is now 6-0-1 all-time in seven Lakeside Classic games over the past four years ... Alvarez, the school's all-time leader in assists, notched his 22nd career assist on North's goal ... Roth also tallied an assist and remains one behind Alvarez on the all-time list with 21 ... North's goal, the 20th of his career, moved him into a three-way tie for fifth place on NU's all-time list.