Northern opened the year in a big way blowing out Blue River College 9-2.  The Mavericks had some first game jitters in the beginning of the game and fell behind thirteen minutes in when the Mavs failed to clear a cross into the penalty box and Blue River tapped it in for the early lead.  John Woodhead tied the game for Northern when he calmly finished a cross from Prince Dom Afriyie just three minutes after Blue River's goal.  Two minutes later Darrion Wilson put the Mavs ahead off an assist from Jaime Ponce.  Blue River would pull even again on a long shot that just cleared the outreached hand of Northern goalkeeper Matthew Cross.  Darrion Wilson scored a crushing goal just before the half after Rojay Smith's header bounced off the crossbar.

The Mavericks wasted no time putting the game away early in the second half.  John Woodhead broke behind the Blue River defense and crossed the ball to Darrion Wilson, who beat the keeper to complete his hat trick.  Rojay Smith took over the next few minutes scoring two goals in less than a minute.  The first came off a cross from Darrion Wilson.  Smith received the ball in the box, beat two Trailblazer defenders, and then the keeper before finishing.  His next goal was a brilliant run with the ball as he skipped past several Blue River defenders before blasting the ball into the net leaving the crowd and his teammates stunned.  Defender Mitchell Wilson headed in Jose Mota's free kick for the Mavs seventh goal.  Daniel Mutai and Jason White would team up for the Mavericks final two goals.  Mutai scored first with White picking up the assist.  The two swapped roles for the Mavs last goal with White picking up the goal and Mutai getting the assist.

Maverick head coach Michael DuRoy said, "It sounds strange when you win a game 9-2, but we really didn't play our best.  We made a lot of mistakes early in the game that we hadn't made in our two scrimmages.  I think the guys were a little nervous in the beginning.  Darrion's goals just before the half and then to start the second half were big.  They gave us a lot of confidence and totally deflated them.  We need to build on the things that we did well and correct the things we didn't."

Northern's next game will be Tuesday when the Mavs host Cloud Community College.