FORT MYERS, Fla. – The FGCU men’s soccer team (1-0-1) locked in defensively and used a barrage of shots to upend Northwestern (0-1-1), 1-0, on Sunday night at Pickering Field in the Eagles’ home opener. This was the Eagles sixth win over a Power Five school in program history dating back to victories against Penn State (2008), Ohio State (2010), South Carolina (2012), Rutgers (2016) and Michigan (2019).
“I loved our first half – I thought it was full of passing, movement, and rhythm. I thought they were really struggling to sort of maintain structure and we were able to break through it at times,” said the head coach. Jesse Cormier. “Davi’s goal was fantastic, but I think there were a lot of opportunities in the game, especially in the first half. You can’t give a team life, and we did that a bit in the second half. They are a mentally tough team and they’re a Big Ten team. They tied Notre Dame last week, so they are not going to fall out of the game. We have to do a much better job to put a team away, but it’s definitely progression in terms of how we played as opposed to what we did at USF.”
The Eagles commanded possession for most of the night which resulted in a 23-to-11 advantage in shots. The 23 shots for FGCU is tied as the fifth-most for a single game in program history.
The lone goal of the night was a beauty to the Eagles’ fans who waited over one hour and 20 minutes due to a rain delay for kick off. David Alves (Belo Horizonte, Brazil) buried the ball inside the far post at the 23:17 minute after a corner kick was sent in from the far sideline.
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For the remainder of the half the Wildcats had just one shot on goal which was saved by Wyatt Kistner (Midlothian, Va.) to preserve the lead at intermission.
FGCU came out of the break blazing and firing six shots but none were able to connect with the back of the net. NU responded with four shots for the remaining minutes of the match with the last one within the final four minutes on the clock. Kistner earned his second shutout of the season with the win
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HEAD COACH JESSE CORMIER
Jesse Cormier is in his sixth year as head coach of the FGCU men’s soccer program in the fall of 2022 after being hired in January of 2017 to become just the 2nd head coach in program history. Cormier has guided FGCU to a 34-31-13 (.521) record overall, including a 19-9-4 mark (.656) in ASUN play. The Eagles have reached the ASUN Tournament semifinals for nine of 10 seasons (every year of eligibility but one), as Cormier has coached 31 all-conference selections since his arrival (program-record 10 in 2017). Cormier was the head coach at his alma mater the University of Vermont for the previous 13 seasons. He won 14 games with the Catamounts in 2016 and advanced to the NCAA Tournament Second Round. During his time with Vermont, Cormier guided the program to the America East Tournament in 12 of 13 seasons, making five title game appearances, winning two tournament crowns, claiming a regular-season championship and advancing to three NCAA tournaments, including a pair of Second Round appearances. Cormier holds an overall 148-120-59 (.543) record as a head coach in his 16-plus seasons at the helm.
#FEEDFGCU
FGCU Athletics sponsors events in November and April to benefit the FGCU Campus Food Pantry (www.fgcu.edu/foodpantry) and the Harry Chapin Food Bank (www.harrychapinfoodbank.org), FGCU Athletics’ charities of choice. For more information, including how to make a contribution, please visit www.fgcu.edu/foodpantry and use the hashtag #FeedFGCU to help raise awareness.
ABOUT FGCU
FGCU teams have combined to win an incredible 85 conference regular season and tournament titles in just 13+ seasons at the Division I level. Additionally, in just nine seasons of DI postseason eligibility, the Eagles have had a combined 42 teams or individuals compete in NCAA championships. Eight FGCU programs have earned a top-25 national ranking in their respective sports – including women’s basketball (No. 21, 2020-21), beach volleyball (No. 20, 2021) and both men’s soccer (2018, 2019) and women’s soccer (2018) as three of the most recent. In 2016-17, the Green and Blue posted a department-best sixth-place finish in the DI-AAA Learfield Directors’ Cup and top-100 showing nationally, ahead of several Power-5 and FBS institutions. In 2018-19, the Eagles had an ASUN and state of Florida best seven teams earn the NCAA’s Public Recognition Award for their Academic Progress Rate in their sport. FGCU also collectively earned a record 3.50 GPA in the classroom in the fall 2020 semester and has outperformed the general university undergraduate population for 24 consecutive semesters. The 2019 Fall, 2020 Spring, 2020 Fall, and 2021 Spring semesters each saw another milestone reached as all 15 programs achieved a 3.0-or-higher team GPA in each. The Eagles also served an all-time high 7,200 volunteer hours in 2017 – being recognized as one of two runners-up for the inaugural NACDA Community Service Award presented by the Fiesta Bowl.
–FGCUATHLETICS.COM–