Northern Kentucky University men’s soccer team travels to Wright State for its first-ever Horizon League match on Tuesday night with kickoff slated for 7 p.m. The game will be broadcast live on ESPN3 with links to live stats available a NKUNorse.com.
The Raiders (6-1-0, 1-0-0 Horizon League) enter Tuesday’s match coming off their first conference win of the season after defeating Cleveland State 1-0 on Saturday. In his seventh season at the helm for the Raiders, Bryan Davis holds a 49-61-9 overall record and a 17-25-5 record in the Horizon League.
Wright State is led offensively by Peguy Ngatcha with five goals and will rely on Tyler Blackmer in goal who sports 21 saves, four goals allowed and a goals against average of 0.57. This will be the 11th meeting between NKU and Wright State with the Raiders leading all-time series 8-2-0.
NKU (3-3-0, 0-0-0 Horizon League) last met Wright State last September at the NKU Soccer Stadium with the Norse notching a thrilling 4-3 win in overtime. Battling back from a two-goal deficit at the half, Kobie Qualah found the net to cut the lead to 2-1.
The Raiders went up 3-1 on a goal by Marquis Payton. Qualah found the net again in the 76th minute to cut the lead to one at 3-2. In the 80th minute NKU’s Cain McDonald booted a penalty kick for the equalizer sending the game into overtime. In OT, it was McDonald again who scored from long range in the opening moments to give NKU the 4-3 win.
On July 1, 2015, NKU officially joined the Horizon League as the conference’s 10th member. While this is the program’s first year of competition in the league, men’s soccer is no stranger to the competition. The Norse have squared off against members of the Horizon League 19 times with a record 3-16 in those contest.
NKU fell on the road at Dayton 4-0 on Friday. The Flyers struck first in the 41st minute with what proved to be the game-winning goal, when James Haupt found the net with an assist by Amass Amankona. Dayton tacked on a three more goals in the second half, with two coming from Amankona (56th minute and 86th minute) and one coming from Lalas Abubakar.
NKU finished the match firing nine shots with two on goal and six corner kicks as A.J. Fleak hauled in four saves. Dayton recorded 23 shots with nine on goal, 12 corner kicks and Flyer goalkeeper Justin Saliba notched two saves.
Following their match with Wright State, the Norse will continue Horizon League play on Saturday at Detroit with kickoff set for 2 p.m. This will mark NKU’s eighth-straight road match since starting the 2015 season.
From NKU Athletics