EVANSVILLE, Ind. – For the first time since 1991, the University of Evansville men’s soccer team clinched a share of a regular season conference title, taking down Northern Illinois by a score of 1-0 on Friday night at Arad McCutchan Stadium. The regular season title is Evansville’s first as a member of the Missouri Valley Conference.
Michal Mroz (Elk Grove, Ill./Elk Grove) and Nate Roberts (Las Vegas, Nev./Bishop Gorman) carried the day for the Purple Aces, as Mroz notched a season-high 10 saves to post his sixth clean sheet of the season, while Roberts netted the game-winner with his first career goal in the 58th minute.
Northern Illinois dominated the scoring chances in the first half, tallying 10 shots to the Aces’ five, but Mroz held strong with six saves to keep the match scoreless heading into halftime. Mroz made three saves in the first 10 and a half minutes of play before making two more saves in the 25th minute.
Tancredi Fadda (Monza, Italy/University of Milan) saw the Aces’ best scoring chance of the first half in the first 40th minute, but his shot was saved to keep it 0-0 going to half.
Mroz made two more saves to begin the second half, coming up with stops in the 47th and 56th minutes to keep his clean sheet in tact.
In the 58th minute, Roberts struck for the night’s first goal, collecting a blocked shot near the top of the box and firing a shot past a diving keeper and into the bottom right corner.
From there, the Aces defense worked to keep the Huskies off the board, withstanding six NIU shots to post a shutout.
“It was a gritty win,” said Head Coach Robbe Tarver. “I think NIU came in here and created a lot of opportunities, we were up against it a little bit tonight but we were able to change the energy in the second half.”
“We talked a lot about being more consistent in the regular season to put ourselves in a position for a conference tournament and make the NCAA Tournament, so we are checking a lot of boxes. Ultimately, we need to win on Wednesday to win the conference outright and go to the final, which is ultimately what we need.”
With the win, Evansville improves to 6-3-8 overall with a 3-0-3 mark in MVC play. The Purple Aces stand alone atop the MVC table with 12 points and can clinch the outright MVC regular season title with a win or draw on Wednesday against Belmont. Kick-off from Nashville is set for 6 PM.
