Northern Michigan University’s Teun Van Gansewinkel, left, knocks the ball away with his header in a GLIAC men’s soccer game played against Wisconsin-Parkside at the NMU Soccer Field in Marquette on Sept. 19. (Photo courtesy of Cara Kamps)

ST. CLOUD, Minn. — The men’s soccer team at Northern Michigan University has moved into the middle of the pack in the conference with a 2-0 win at St. Cloud State on Sunday afternoon.

The Wildcats have won two of three, all games in the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, to improve to fourth place in the league at 2-2, 3-2-3 overall. St. Cloud slipped to 1-3 and 3-5-1.

NMU snapped a four-game winless streak against the Huskies, getting its first win at St. Cloud since October 2022.

“Another awesome road performance,” Northern head coach Alex Fatovic said in an NMU Sports Information news release detailing the result. “The guys played fantastic for the full 90 minutes, and this was probably our best performance of the season from front to back.

“We got the early goal and followed our game plan. I wasn’t too pleased with the start of the second half, but we made some great changes, and guys performed. Tyler Kowalczyk was awesome off the bench, (we got) a huge goal from Ian (Weimer) to close out the game, but a lot of individual and collective performances that got us our third shutout in five games on the road.”

The Wildcats are 2-1-2 on the road, and have three shutouts while only allowing two goals against in five road games.

Northern comes home to the NMU Soccer Field this week to host current league leader and 2024 GLIAC regular-season and tournament champion Saginaw Valley State at noon Friday. Two days later will be another home encounter against last-place Davenport at noon Sunday.

“We’ll rest and recover, but there’s no time to really enjoy this as we have the league leaders and Elite 8 co-champions from last season (with) Saginaw Valley in town on Friday,” Fatovic said. “Really pleased with the performance … another road win, another road shutout and just exactly what we needed.”

The Wildcats scored a goal in each half Sunday, the first on a penalty kick off the foot of Luca Rosen in the 26th minute. The penalty was called for a hand ball after sustained offensive pressure and good chances to score.

Rosen right-footed his attempt and beat SCSU netminder Ramy Atia in the bottom right of the net, making both he and the Wildcats 2 for 2 on penalty kicks this season.

Atia and NMU keeper Asaf Kristal each finished with four saves as the Northern netminder got his fourth shutout this season.

Northern didn’t get its insurance goal until 5:13 remained when Tyler Kowalczyk made a terrific defensive effort, playing a long ball to a streaking Ian Weimer. The latter played a pass to Teun van Gansewinkel, who dribbled around Atia and fired a shot blocked by a defender. But as the ball was knocked into the air, van Gansewinkel headed it in.

Story contents based on Northern Michigan University Sports Information press release reviewing the game. Journal Sports Editor Steve Brownlee’s email address is sbrownlee@miningjournal.net.