Senior Juan Hoyos got his final season off to a good start, scoring the opening two goals as the Northern Illinois men's soccer team defeated Indianapolis, 5-2, in an exhibition match, Wednesday.
"Our work rate was honest, and the guys worked hard, there is no question about that," NIU coach Eric Luzzi said.
Luzzi credited much of Hoyos' productive night to his bullish style of play.
"Juan was a handful," Luzzi said. "He was very physical and aggressive doing his thing because they had no answer for him."
Huskies from every class scored as junior Tim King, freshman Houston Hoffman and sophomore Hooman Shams all found the back of the net after Hoyos' dual tallies. Luzzi noted that in addition to a pair of goals off of set pieces, the physical difference between NIU and Indianapolis proved to be the major point of differentiation.
"The things you would expect to be the difference between a good Division I program and a good Division II program were indeed the difference," Luzzi said. "We were just bigger, faster and stronger."
While Northern Illinois may have outmatched Indianapolis physically, Luzzi was quick to compliment the effort of the Greyhounds.
"Credit to Indianapolis; there were stretches of the game where they had the better of the play," he said. "They worked hard and were very committed, but we still should've done a better job in certain sections of the game to grab a hold of it."
Luzzi came away from the match impressed with the number of Huskies that could compete for playing time in the regular season, and the play of the newcomers to the team.
