KALAMAZOO, Mich. – The Northern Kentucky University men's soccer team fell to the Western Michigan Broncos, 4-0, on Friday evening. The Broncos scored three goals in the second half and showed their offensive presence on their home field.
 
The beginning of the match looked like many of the previous games for the Norse this season. The opposition pressured the Norse backline and broke through in the ninth minute. The Norse defenders failed to deal with a cross sent in by the Broncos' Hunter Vandenboom. WMU's Carlos Suarez settled the ball from just outside of the six-yard box and struck the ball past A.J. Fleak into the bottom right corner of the goal.
 
The Broncos continued to dictate the pace in the game after the early goal and outshot the Norse, 10-3, in the first 45 minutes. Fleak recorded three saves in the first half after bracing the onslaught of the Broncos' attack. NKU's best chance at an equalizer came when Diego Martinez took a corner kick in the 22nd minute. The ball bounced away from the penalty area and Cian McDonald struck the ball well, but it curled wide of the target. NKU headed into halftime trailing for the third match in a row.
 
The second half began with the Norse showing promising signs on the offense side of the ball. Jacob Cunningham weaved through the Bronco defenders in the 48th minute and cracked a high, long range shot that hit the top of the crossbar and went out of play, marking the best chance on goal the Norse received for the rest of the game.
 
Further into the second half, the Broncos began to turn up the pressure on the Norse defense, anchored by Christian Johnson. In the 65th minute, WMU's Sean Conerty played a ball over the top of the Norse defensive backs that landed at the feet of Nick Wysong. Danny Laird rushed back to chase Wysong down, but Wysong struck a low shot through Laird's legs that landed in the back of the net.
 
The Norse would not be able to muster up the magic they showed in the Wright State match and, eventually, they conceded two more goals in the last eight minutes. Greg Timmer struck a loose ball off a corner into the bottom left corner of the goal in the 83rd minute, and Logan Wright tapped in a rebound in the 89th minute to stretch the scoreline to 4-0 in favor of Western Michigan.
 
The Norse drop to 2-3-3 with the loss and will return to the pitch on Sunday, Sept. 28 to take on Western Illinois at the NKU Soccer Stadium at 1 p.m. Live stats and video will be available on nkunorse.com, and be sure to follow @NKUNorseMSOC on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for updates on the team throughout the rest of the 2014 season.