The Northern Michigan University men’s soccer team poses in front of one of their goals after defeating national No. 17 Saginaw Valley State 1-0 at the NMU Soccer Field in Marquette last Friday. (Photo courtesy NMU)

MARQUETTE — The men’s soccer team at Northern Michigan University hopes to use the momentum of a win over nationally ranked Saginaw Valley State a week ago to produce two wins on the road this weekend, starting this afternoon.

The Wildcats are dead center in the middle of the standings — fourth place out of seven teams — in the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, standing at 3-2-1 in conference games and 4-2-4 overall.

That’s after they defeated the Cardinals last Friday 1-0 at the NMU Soccer Field despite getting heavily outshot and playing shorthanded for the final 35 minutes. Things weren’t quite as good Sunday with a 1-1 tie against last-place Davenport, but it at least kept Northern above .500 in the league.

Curiously, despite an overall 12-game conference schedule, the Wildcats get the return engagement against both of last week’s opponents this weekend. They play in Grand Rapids against Davenport at 2 p.m. today, then head to University Center between Saginaw and Bay City to take on SVSU at 11 a.m. Sunday.

Fans can follow @NMU_Msoc on Instagram and @NMU_Mens_Soccer on X (formerly Twitter) for updates leading up to and during the matches, or visit the NMU athletics website at nmuwildcats.com and look under the men’s soccer schedule for links to live video, live statistics and previews.

Northern was rewarded for its upset of No. 17 SVSU a week ago with not one, but two weekly conference honors. Junior forward Luca Rosen was named GLIAC Offensive Player of the Week, while junior goalkeeper Asaf Kristal earned GLIAC Defensive Player of the Week.

Rosen scored both of NMU’s goals last week, while Kristal negated the Cardinals’ huge 31-10 edge in shots, including 12-7 in shots on goal, to net Northern the big win. A red card issued to the Wildcats left them with 10 players vs. Saginaw 11 for more than half an hour.

In the past six games, Rosen is No. 1 in the GLIAC with five goals and three game winners, while Kristal also had double-digit saves vs. Davenport, giving him league leads for conference games in multiple categories.

Despite its paltry 1-5-4 overall and 0-3-3 league records, Davenport has ties in each of its last three games — not only the 1-1 deadlock at NMU, but identical 2-2 ties vs. Wisconsin-Parkside and Purdue Northwest.

Meanwhile, SVSU also lost at Parkside on Sunday, 2-1, to fall out of the national rankings at 5-2-3 overall and 4-2 in the GLIAC. They outscore their opponents 21-8 as Matty Telfer has five goals and 11 points.

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