HIGHLAND HEIGHTS, Ky. – The Northern Kentucky University men's soccer team will host the North Florida Ospreys on Friday Oct. 11 at the NKU Soccer Complex. The Norse beat the Ospreys in Jacksonville last season, 2-1.
NKU is coming off of a split over this past weekend. The Norse defeated Stetson 2-1 in overtime on Friday Oct. 4 and then they lost to FGCU, 1-0 on Sunday. FGCU was picked the win the Atlantic Sun this season and an early penalty kick was all that separated the two sides.
"Going to Florida this time of year you can run into heat; we did," said head coach
John Basalyga. "The heat was affecting both teams on Sunday but it is nice to see that road trip out of the way. Coming back with a split was good. I'll take it and we'll move on."
With conference play underway, the Norse are looking to improve on their 4-3-1 A-Sun record from last season. The Norse are still ineligible for post-season play due to reclassification and coach Basalyga has stressed the importance of treating a conference game like any other game.
"The biggest thing for us is to figure out how to win the next game," said Basalyga. "You want to win conference games, yes, but you want to do well overall. To me, conference games are just another game on the schedule."
North Florida is 4-3-1 (0-1 A-Sun) heading into the contest. The Ospreys have already matched their win total from last season as they went 4-13 (1-7 A-Sun). The game this weekend will be the first conference home contest of 2013 for the Norse.
"It's going to be nice to be playing back at home," said Basalyga. "We are going to start playing here more since we only have three road games left. It's always nice playing in front of our fans. We have to treat every remaining game like it's the biggest game of the year."
The Norse offense has had some moments of struggle as of late, but senior
Mohammad Salhieh is putting together some strong performances recently. He scored the only goal in NKU's 1-1 draw at Marshall and he scored the overtime goal to claim the 2-1 victory at Stetson.
"Mo(Salhieh) has been playing really well," said Basalyga. "I took him out Friday and told him that he was playing well but you have to come up with a final product. We put him back in the game in overtime and he scrambled around to get the ball and put it in the back of the net."
Promotions for this weekend's game include:
BLACKOUT CANCER – presented by the American Cancer Society. Wear BLACK. The first 200 fans wearing black will receive a FREE NKU koozie. Black balloons will be sold to benefit the ACS and they will be released at halftime. There will also be an NKU jersey raffle to benefit the ACS. $1 from each admission fee will be donated to the ACS.
FACULTY/STAFF APPRECIATION NIGHT – All NKU faculty and staff members will receive free admission into the game with their All-Card.
The game is scheduled for a 7 p.m. kickoff. Live stats and video will be available on nkunorse.com. Be sure to follow @NKUNorse on Twitter for game updates and follow @NKUNorseMSOC, the official Twitter account of the NKU men's soccer team.
