Wildcats Top Ohio State in Big Ten Opener, 3-1

Sunday, September 17

Evanston, Ill.

3:00 PM

Northwestern

6-1, 1-0

Ohio State

2-4-2, 0-1

Ohio State

Northwestern

Brad North tallied two goals to help the Wildcats defeat the Buckeyes this afternoon.

Wildcats Top Ohio State in Big Ten Opener, 3-1

9/17/2006 12:00:00 AM | Men's Soccer

Box Score

Sept. 17, 2006

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Box Score

EVANSTON, Ill. -- Behind two Brad North goals and another one by David Roth, the Wildcats did something they haven't done in 13 years: beat Ohio State.

Northwestern (6-1, 1-0) defeated the Buckeyes (2-4-2, 0-1) this afternoon 3-1 and won its Big Ten opener for the first time in the Tim Lenahan era. The win also snapped a 15-match winless streak against the Buckeyes.

"I thought in the first half that we played as well we've played since I've been here, so it's kind of ironic that we were down 1-0 even though we played that well," Lenahan said. "We knew that we were playing well and our job is to creat chances to score and when we're doing that, I know we're eventually going to get one. I thought what we saw in the second half was good players making some big plays. Brad North with two great finishes, Carl Pett with two great assists and Dave did a great job beating the goalie on the one-view-one situation. I thought it was a just result against a good team and I'm real happy to be 1-0 in the conference."

Once again, the Wildcats came back from a 1-0 deficit at halftime--the third time in the last four games. Ohio State got on the board first in the third minute after a hand-ball was called on Northwestern near the goal, allowing OSU's Xavier Balc to knock in the penalty kick for the 1-0 lead.

But the Wildcats were the aggressor in the first half, out-shooting Ohio State 13-2 (19-6 for the game). The Wildcats just missed high and wide, shot after shot and kept the pressure on the Ohio State defense throughout the half.

But they regrouped at halftime and it didn't take long for the Wildcats to tie it up when Carl Pett fed a streaking North who fired it past OSU goalkeeper Casey Latchem into the right side of the net from 15-yards out six minutes into the half.

Just over five minutes later, Pett fed Roth in a similar fashion, as Roth took the pass and shook his way past Latchem who was charging, and tapped it in for the easy goal and the 2-1 lead.

Then in the 63rd minute, Northwestern added an insurance goal when North tallied his second goal of the day with an assist from Eamon O'Neill.

Again, all NU goals came after halftime. Eleven of NU's 12 goals this year half come in the second half.

Will Briley (4-1) recorded one save on the afternoon in the win.

The match was delayed a total of 40 minutes before the game was called due to lightning with 3:58 left in the game.

Northwestern is back in action at 3 p.m. this Wednesday at DePaul. They then welcome Penn State to Evanston next Sunday. Game time is 12:30 p.m.