By Maggie Cassidy

The men’s soccer team split its weekend road trip, taking a win 3-1 over Virginia Commonwealth Friday and a 3-2 loss against James Madison University yesterday to move to 5-8 (3-3 Colonial Athletic Association (CAA)) on the season.

Freshman forward Nick Lueders tallied the first two goals of his career against Virginia Tech, leading the Huskies in their first road win of the season.

“It wasn’t just any two goals,” said senior captain Greg Kilkenny, who netted a pair of his own against JMU. “It was two really good strikes. He played really well.”

Less than two minutes into the VCU game, Lueders knocked in a rebound from the left side to give NU the early lead. VCU’s Sven Meusch evened it up with 10 minutes left in the half, but senior forward Ahmed Talaat took back the lead for Northeastern after the break, with a rifle shot into the right corner.

Lueders added the cushion with just a minute left to play, burying a breakaway low and left.

“We got an early goal, which helped us out, so once we got that, we were flying up and down,” Kilkenny said. “We worked our socks off. We defended so well as a team.”

Sophomore keeper Mahmoud Talaat blocked seven shots to preserve the win, recording several “magic saves,” Kilkenny said.

The Huskies hoped to keep the momentum in their favor going into Sunday’s match at James Madison, but struggled to ward off the Dukes’ strikers and fell into a back-and-forth battle.

“As a whole, we just defended bad and let them score two goals that they should never have scored,” Kilkenny said.

NU started off flat, allowing the Dukes to strike first. Stefan Durr got the better of Mahmoud Talaat, with three minutes left in the first half.

But Northeastern took control coming out of the locker room for the second half, when Kilkenny scored twice in the first five minutes for a 2-1 edge.

The hosts were able to even it up once more, taking advantage of Northeastern’s sloppy play in the backfield. They headed in a free kick six minutes later.

Sophomore backup keeper Scott Partridge replaced Mahmoud Talaat for the final 12 minutes of play, but the Dukes outplayed him as well, taking the game-winner with just four minutes left – a goal Kilkenny said was “a dagger in the heart” for his squad.

“After scoring two goals I thought we’d hold on and take the win, and it’s just unfortunate,” he said.

The loss ended a three-game winning streak for NU, but Kilkenny said his team is feeling good about its CAA standings after the weekend’s decisions.

“Overall, we’re still not too upset because we’ve been playing such good soccer this year,” he said. “We can only get better.”

He emphasized that the team is confident in its abilities as it moves deeper into CAA play and looks to the postseason.

“I think we’ll be right up there,” Kilkenny said. “We’re really confident this year. Just to get into the playoffs won’t do it – we want to get a high seed.”

The Huskies, sixth in the CAA, are on the road at Delaware (2-10-1, 2-4-0 CAA) Friday at 7 p.m. before returning to Parsons Field Sunday for a Homecoming matchup against Drexel (9-2-2 (6-0 CAA)) at 1 p.m.

“Everyone coming off the bench is playing well,” Kilkenny said. “I think we can take Delaware and then a big game against Drexel at home.”