Northern Michigan University’s Luca Rosen, left, gets a kick past Lawrence Tech's John Assenmacher during their college men’s soccer game played at the NMU Soccer Field in Marquette on Saturday. (Photo courtesy Cara Kamps)

MARQUETTE — The Northern Michigan University men’s soccer team is on the scoreboard.

After playing to a scoreless tie in their opener two days earlier, these Wildcats scored their first goals of the season to notch a 2-1 win over visiting Lawrence Tech in a game played at the NMU Soccer Field on Saturday afternoon.

Teun van Gansewinkel scored the only goal of the first half to give NMU a 1-0 lead at intermission.

LTU evened the score just a few minutes after play resumed in the second half, but Northern’s Davian Gumbs netted the game winner with just under 20 minutes left as the Wildcats improved to 1-0-1.

On this blustery afternoon in view of Lake Superior, van Gansewinkel netted the second goal of his career, while Gumbs’ flying header was his third overall and first game-winning goal of his career.

“Good team win today,” NMU head coach Alex Fatovic said in an NMU Sports Information news release about the game. “We had a great first half, we worked the ball really well, but then a really poor start to the second half got us into trouble.

“For the guys to dig out this win like we did, it’s a great learning experience and a really good sign.”

A couple more Northern players also accumulated points as Luca Rosen and Alessandro Scialanga were credited with assists on van Gansewinkel’s tally and James Carr got an assist on Gumbs’ goal.

Netminder Asaf Kristal made three saves for NMU in his second appearance. Joining him in playing all 90 minutes was Carr, Scialanga and Owen Rutledge, while the Wildcats’ Quint Van Roij and van Gansewinkel had more than 80 minutes.

Northern dominated most of the statistics, outshooting the Blue Devils 16-9 overall and 9-4 in shots on goal, while also holding an 8-5 edge in corner kicks. The Wildcats also committed fewer fouls, 14-10, and drew fewer yellow cards, 4-2.

The stats also showed NMU had the ball 52% of the time, and were in the attacking half 66% with the ball compared to LTU’s 55%.

“Really proud of our full team effort today,” Fatovic said. “We had a lot of (underclassmen) come in and make big impacts (for us), 10 minutes at a time, 15 minutes at a time, and those are really big minutes for us.

“We made the right subs, and everyone who came in and gave us minutes today off the bench was fantastic, and that’s a really great sign that we can rely on our guys.”

Van Gansewinkel’s goal was set up when Scialanga crossed the halfway line and curled a pass to Rosen, who timed his run perfectly to slip behind the defenders, according to NMU SI. Rosen met the ball just inside the penalty box and crossed a pass to van Gansewinkel, who just had to redirect the ball into a yawning cage. 

The Blue Devils’ goal scored by midfielder Pablo Calvo Perez at 49:05 tied it. Alexander Prenkocevic made a good run to weave through defenders and get a solid shot on target, which Kristal saved, but the rebound landed on the boot of Perez, who made no mistake to find the back of the net.

The game-winner came off Gumbs’ head at 70:35. Van Gansewinkel played a booming pass to Carr to switch the field, and he had space to run, NMU SI said. Carr drove to the Blue Devil touch line before sending a right-footed cross through the box, and Gumbs came screaming into the back post, meeting the ball in the air to regain the lead.  

Both teams had prime opportunities to either double the lead or score an equalizer, but the final 20 minutes passed and the Wildcats held on to win.

Northern makes its longest road trip of the season this week, traveling to Romeoville, Illinois, to face Lewis at 2 p.m. EDT Thursday, then heads east to Painesville, Ohio, to take on former GLIAC member Lake Erie at 1 p.m. Sunday.

“We’ve got the toughest road trip possible this week, and we’re going to have to play better to get results on the road, but it’s all there for us,” Fatovic said. “(We’re) undefeated so far, and we’re going to try and keep that rolling.”

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.