Northern Michigan University’s Jan Hoffmann, right, gets off a pass while being defended by Saginaw Valley State’s Taro Aboubakary during their GLIAC game played at the NMU Soccer Field in Marquette on Oct. 10. (Photo courtesy Cara Kamps)

MARQUETTE — Maybe scoring is a weekend thing at the Northern Michigan University soccer pitch.

For the third time in three games this season, the Wildcat men’s team played to a scoreless draw when one of their games wasn’t played on a Friday, Saturday or Sunday.

Wednesday’s game was played in Kenosha, Wisconsin, at Wisconsin-Parkside and didn’t produce any goals over 90 minutes of action.

That came about even as the teams combined to put up 33 shots, nine of them on goal. By the way, NMU had a 20-13 advantage in all shots and 5-4 in shots on goal.

The Wildcats opened their season on Sept. 4, a Thursday, playing to a 0-0 tie at home against Northwood. Then on Sept. 11, the following Thursday, Northern traveled to Lewis University in Romeoville, Illinois, and guess what? — that game was scoreless, too.

Every other NMU game has been played on a Friday, Saturday or Sunday this season, and of course, every other game has had at least one goal scored by one team or the other.

All that scorelessness leaves Northern at 4-4-5 overall and 3-4-2 in the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, good for fourth place with 11 points in the seven-team league. Parkside is just in front of the Wildcats at 4-4-4 overall and 4-2-3 in league games, accumulating 15 points for third place.

The Wildcats might’ve been more comfortable with the weather conditions than their hosts, playing in sub-50-degree weather with 20 to 30 mph winds blowing up and down the field.

That showed in the stats, as Parkside had an 8-4 advantage in total shots in the first half, with Northern more than turning it around after intermission with a 16-5 edge then.

All 11 Northern starters played at least 77 minutes, with eight going the full 90.

Starter and leading goal scorer Luca Rosen had twice as many shots as any other player, taking 10 of them altogether with three on target. Teammate Teun van Gansewinkel had five shots and one on goal, while Ian Weimer had three in total and also one on target.

Goalkeepers ruled with each posting a shutout as NMU’s Asaf Kristal stopped four shots on goal and the Rangers’ Daniyal Rana had five stops. Kristal now has six blankings this season and Rana three.

Northern also had twice as many corner kicks, 8-4, while whistled for 12 fouls to Parkside’s seven. And NMU was shown four yellow cards, all in the first half into the headwind, while the Rangers were handed two, both in the second half when they were headed into the wind.

Northern returns home to finish the season at the NMU Soccer Field and is “almost guaranteed” to have no more 0-0 games, since the remaining games are on Fridays and Sundays.

The Wildcats host sixth-place St. Cloud State (4-8-1, 2-6 GLIAC) at noon Sunday, then take on league-leading Roosevelt (8-2-3, 6-1-1) at 2 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 31 — Halloween — before wrapping things up with last-place Purdue Northwest (2-9-2, 1-5-2) at 2 p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 2.

The GLIAC Tournament is scheduled for its quarterfinal round at campus sites on Sunday, Nov. 9, with semifinals and finals the following weekend.

If the league follows the same playoff format as last year, the top six teams would qualify for the postseason, with the third- and fourth-place squads hosting the quarterfinals. NMU is now in fourth.

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.