No. 14 Wildcats Fall to Penn State 2-1

Sunday, September 24

Evanston, Ill.

12:30 PM

Northwestern

7-2, 1-1

Penn State

3-5-1, 2-0

Team	1	2	Final F
Penn State	0	2	2
Northwestern	0	1	1

Brad North notched his fourth goal of the season late in the second period.

No. 14 Wildcats Fall to Penn State 2-1

9/24/2006 12:00:00 AM | Men's Soccer

Box Score

Sept. 24, 2006

Box Score

EVANSTON, Ill. -- No. 14 Northwestern had its five-game win streak halted today with a 2-1 loss at the hands of Penn State at the Lakeside Field in Evanston. The win improves Penn State to 2-0 in the conference and 3-5-1 overall while Northwestern slips to 1-1 and 7-2 overall.

Trailing by two late in the game, Northwestern made one last push as Brad North notched his fourth goal of the season with a 1:30 left in the game with freshman Mark Blades serving up the assist on the play.

But the Wildcats, who out shot Penn State 24-12, tried desperately to tie the game with a few more attempts on the goal, but came away with nothing.

After the game, head coach Tim Lenahan talked about his teams' chances throughout the match.

"We had our chances, but I don't think we were as aggressive in terms of getting after balls in the box," Lenahan said. "We've worked so hard the last few weeks on becoming a better soccer team in terms of our combination play in the final third, that we didn't get back to what our bread and butter is and that's getting after balls in the box. We had a lot of headers and a lot of chances, but I don't know if we really got after it the way I know we're capable of. That's definitely something we'll work on next week. We played great soccer, but getting back to getting that blue collar edge in the box I thought was the one thing missing today.

"I think this shows you where we are in relation with the rest of the Big Ten. We're pretty good. Penn State did what they had to do -- they came in here on the road and got a win so I give them credit. They made a play, forced us to chase the game, made another play and we just didn't have enough to come all the way back."

After a scoreless first period, Frank Costigliola gave Penn State the 1-0 lead in the 58th minute when Simon Omekanda fired a pass from the right wing into the box. Costigliola came up with the ball off a deflection and fired it past a diving Will Briley (5-2) in goal.

The second goal came in the 81st minute when Markku Viitanen found Barkley Miller whose shot was just beyond the reach of a diving Justin Pines who was inserted for Briley in the 73rd minute.

The Wildcats take on Loyola (Ill.) at 7 p.m. next Wednesday on the road before continuing Big Ten play on the road at Wisconsin next Sunday, Oct. 1. Game time is 1 p.m.