MARQUETTE — The Northern Michigan University men’s soccer team insured itself no worse than the No. 5 seed in the six-team GLIAC Tournament after defeating Ashland 2-0 at the NMU Soccer Field on Sunday.

The Wildcats are 8-9 overall and 7-6 in the GLIAC, good for 21 points, as Ashland slipped to 5-10-1 and 5-7-1 and 16 points. Each win is worth three points and a tie one point.

With one league game left, NMU is three points behind Northwood for No. 4, the final one that nets a home game in the tourney’s opening quarterfinal round. Northern could tie Northwood for fourth.

NMU concludes its regular season against league-leading Wisconsin-Parkside at 2:30 p.m. EST Thursday.

On Sunday, the Wildcats didn’t break the scoreless tie until the 69th minute. NMU was fouled to earn a free kick, which was taken by senior Lewis Murray. He sent the ball over the Eagles’ defense into the box, where Northern juniors Keegan Goetz and Arni Eiriksson slipped the ball to senior Luca Lippert, who knocked it home.

The Wildcats added insurance with about 3 1/2 minutes left when freshman Ryan Palmbaum brought the ball upfield along the left sideline, then centered the ball to Goetz in the middle of the box and he fired it in.

NMU held a huge 23-5 shots advantage, with Lippert, Palmbaum and senior Callum Olpin taking four apiece.

Sophomore goalkeeper Patrick Restum was called on to make just one save.

For Senior Day, Northern honored its seven seniors — Lippert, Murray, Olpin, Ben Hoffman, Sveinn Karlsson, Nick Metcalfe and Eric Suess.

On Friday, the Wildcats’ four-game winning streak was broken when they fell 2-1 at home to Davenport.

NMU sophomore Julius Reis sent a pass over Davenport defenders and to Lippert for the goal that made it 1-1 in the 77th minute. But less than a minute and a half later, DU’s Matt Whelan scored his second goal and what proved to be the game winner.

Restum made a career-high 10 saves while a pair of Panther goalies combined for nine. NMU sophomore Kaffie Kurz had three shots, all on goal.

Information compiled by Journal Sports Editor Steve Brownlee. His email address is sbrownlee@miningjournal.net.