Contact: Sam Fretto, Athletics Communication Graduate Assistant, sjfretto@noctrl.edu

NAPERVILLE, Ill. (Oct. 11, 2025)- Behind a brace from Morgan Kurseth in their penultimate regular season home game of the 2025 campaign, the North Central College men's soccer team defeated the Elmhurst Bluejays in College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin action by a score of 3-1 inside of Benedetti-Wehrli Stadium on Saturday. 

North Central jumped ahead with a 1-0 lead in the 7th minute of the match. Marco Costabile brought the ball into the zone and dumped it off to Lorenzo Monticelli, who crossed it into the middle of the box. Elmhurst's goalkeeper Niyen Ruffin knocked it out to Will Mayer, and he headed it twice and found Joseph Sargent with a wide-open net as he tapped it with his left foot. Mayer was credited with his first assist of the year, while Sargent scored his 11th goal in his freshman campaign. 

The next score of the game came off the foot of Kurseth at 26:54 to make the score 2-0 Cardinals. Costabile brought the ball up the right side, attacking the endline, and crossed the ball between two Bluejays defenders. The pass found the right foot of Kurseth as he fired it by Ruffin just outside the 6-yard box. Costabile was credited with the first of his two assists in the match. 

Elmhurst responded to the 2-0 lead with a goal in the late moments of the first half. The Bluejays' defense cleared the ball out of their zone and tracked it down with Klaus Gartner. Daniel Szalai left the net to flag down the ball but couldn't get there in time. Szalai forced Gartner into a more difficult shot, and with the net empty, Griffin French sprinted to the goal line to knock the ball out of the net to stop the goal for the time being. A follow-up by Charlie Terriquez secured the first score of the game for Elmhurst to cut the deficit to 2-1 at 41:36. 

North Central put the game out of reach in the second half with a double-assisted goal from Kurseth in the 54th minute. Aleks Duncevic played a through ball to Costabile as he took it to the endline and into the 18-yard box, crossing it to Kurseth for the brace. Duncevic recorded his fourth assist, while Costabile has assisted seven goals this year. 

The remainder of the match saw North Central play defensively, allowing just one shot on goal from Elmhurst in the 85th minute, which was saved by Vincent Stanislao, who relieved Szalai at the beginning of the second half. 

Sargent scored his CCIW-leading 11th goal of the season, while Costabile assisted on two goals to bring his season total to seven, which also leads the conference. The Cardinals shot 21 times to the Bluejays' 15. Both teams had three shots on goal. 

North Central (6-1-5, 2-0-1 CCIW) heads back to the pitch when they travel to Decatur, Ill., for a match against Millikin University (4-6-1, 0-2-1 CCIW) on Wednesday, Oct. 15. Kickoff from Frank M. Lindsay Field is set for 7:30 p.m.