Northern Michigan University’s Niko Scheibal, right, tries to sneak the ball past Northwood goalie Corbin Cecchini, on the ground, as the Wildcats’ Brady Kronenburg, center, waits for a rebound during the first half on April 11 at the Superior Dome in Marquette. (Journal photo by Ryan Stieg)

MARQUETTE — The Northern Michigan University men’s soccer team finished the regular season tied for third in the GLIAC despite a 2-1 overtime loss in the Superior Dome to Wisconsin-Parkside on Saturday afternoon.

The Wildcats are 4-3 both overall and in league, tied with Purdue Northwest. Though all the information about the GLIAC Tournament has yet to be released, the third- or fourth-place finish will be enough to get NMU a home playoff game when the tourney begins Sunday as the top four teams host the bottom four in the quarterfinal round on Sunday.

The semifinals are scheduled for Friday, April 30, and championship on Sunday, May 2.

On Saturday, the teams played a tense second half with no goals scored after each team knocked the ball home in the game’s first 35 minutes.

Parkside’s Max Ludwig opened the scoring in the 16th minute before NMU’s Emanuel Ancione got his third goal this season just over 17 minutes later with an assist going to Ryan Palmbaum.

Though each team took five shots in the second half, the score remained 1-1 going to overtime. The Wildcats’ Niko Scheibal came up big on defense by blocking several shots while also winning several balls in the air, according to an account from NMU Sports Information.

In the end, though, Parkside needed just 2:43 of the OT to get the winner when Osvaldo Sanchez Arellano got his first goal of the season unassisted to end the Wildcats’ four-game winning streak that included shutouts in the past three games.

Alex Weaver made four saves in the Northern goal, as did Alexander Durand for Parkside. One of Weaver’s in the second half was a leaping save that helped force extra time.

“It was a tight match, as expected,” Wildcats head coach David Poggi told NMU Sports Information. “There were lots of opportunities throughout for both teams to score. I am proud of us coming back from being behind and tying it.

“Any sudden-death overtime is not really indicative of the match itself. They put away their final chance and earned the win just like we would have if it went our way. This was our first overtime match of the season.

“We have a lot of young players who wanted to keep going even after the golden goal was scored. I like that because it is another step in the maturity of this team and shows how much further this team can grow and learn.

“The guys are naturally going to be down after a loss like this, but they have been in good spirits the last few weeks. We are now going into the playoffs and are shifting our focus on that stretch of the season.”

As Parkside held a 16-12 shots advantage, Palmbaum and Ancione each had three shots for NMU, while Kaffie Kurz added two.

Palmbaum had two shots that were on goal, with one each by Ancione, Alex Scott and Shawn Clarke.

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