These half-dozen Northern Michigan University seniors were honored at Senior Day before the Wildcat men’s soccer game against Upper Iowa on Sunday at the NMU Soccer Field. From left are Alex Scott, Markus Sandstad, Julius Reis, Kaffie Kurz, Arni Eiriksson and Brady Kronenburg. (Photo courtesy NMU)

MARQUETTE — The Northern Michigan University men’s soccer team split a pair of home games over the weekend, defeating St. Cloud State and falling to Upper Iowa.

An encouraging sign in the 2-0 win and 4-2 loss was the Wildcats scoring multiple goals for only the second and third times this season.

Northern (4-9-3, 4-7-2 GLIAC) completes its regular season with a home game at 3 p.m. Thursday at the NMU Soccer Field against Wisconsin-Parkside.

Here is a recap of the past weekend:

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NMU 2, St. Cloud State 0

On Friday, the Wildcats scored a goal in each half, also winning the battle of shots on both sides of the halftime break. Northern held a 4-2 advantage in shots in the first half and 7-4 edge in the second 45 minutes, 11-6 in all, while holding a narrower 4-3 advantage for the entire game in shots on goal.

NMU junior Quinn Putt scored his first goal of the season with just over five minutes remaining in the opening half. He netted the ball low-center coming off a pass from Kyle Reilly, according to an account from NMU Sports Information.

The Wildcats added insurance near the midpoint of the second half in the 73rd minute when midfielder Isaac Ward also got his first goal of the fall, tapping in the ball from the short side off a pass from Ryan Palmbaum.

NMU goalkeeper Alex Weaver made three saves for the shutout while St. Cloud counterpart Gage Steiner had two saves.

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Upper Iowa 4, NMU 2

On Sunday, the Wildcats built a 2-0 halftime lead only to see the Peacocks score four unanswered goals in the second half.

A pair of NMU players each netted their first goals of the season late in the first half.

The first goal came with 7:20 left and was scored by Niko Scheibal as he headed a free kick by Ryan Palmbaum into the left corner of the net. Palmbaum’s kick itself went to the top right of the goal area before Scheibal changed its direction.

Then about 3 1/2 minutes later, freshman Logan Lazar netted an unassisted goal to make it 2-0.

Weaver finished with five saves, while the Peacocks’ Osvaldo Alonzo had three.

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