Northern Michigan University’s Hannah Jabas, center in white, tries to scoop a loose ball in front of the Lewis net during their college lacrosse game played at the Superior Dome in Marquette on Feb. 26. (Photo courtesy Cara Kamps)

ASHLAND, Ohio — The lacrosse team at Northern Michigan University didn’t realize it at the time, but their 13-12 win at Ashland in the middle of Ohio on Friday afternoon would give them a perfect week.

That’s because it wasn’t until the next day that the Wildcats would decide to cancel Sunday’s game at the University of Indianapolis. Both teams agreed that NMU should try to get back to Marquette before the weather really took a turn for the worse in the Upper Peninsula, which of course it did over the weekend.

That game at nationally ranked Indy may be rescheduled, but nothing had been set at the time of the postponement.

For the game that was played in Ohio on Friday, the teams battle winds of 25 mph and higher, along with chilly temperatures, before Northern’s Evita Weiche broke a 12-12 tie with a goal 1:19 before regulation ran out to lift her team to victory.

Just 51 seconds before that, Ashland’s Tori Wanat scored her fourth of the day that forced the deadlock, the fourth tie score of the final quarter.

Weiche’s goal was not only the game decider, technically the game-winning goal, but also the first collegiate goal for the sophomore defender.

The victory improved the Wildcats’ record to 6-2 with the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference schedule set to begin at 5 p.m. Friday in the friendly confines of the Superior Dome against Saginaw Valley State. Ashland, a former member of the GLIAC, is 3-4.

NMU played catchup throughout the first quarter before taking its first lead, 5-4, when Josie Lakosky scored her second of five goals on the day with 10:38 left in the second quarter.

That goal was actually in the middle of six unanswered goals by the Wildcats, four of them by Lakosky, that turned Northern’s 4-1 deficit into a 7-4 lead not long before halftime.

Still up 7-6 when the second half started, NMU kept the lead until early in the fourth, when the Eagles’ Ashley Fisher scored as the teams would be tied 9-9, 10-10, 11-11 and 12-12 before Weiche’s late game-winner.

Lakosky finished with seven points as she had two assists to go with her five goals. Hannah Jabas and Avery Lorinser each had three-goal hat tricks, Lorinser adding an assist for four points.

Weiche and Annabelle Johnson each had single goals, with Vanessa Carrico adding an assist for NMU.

Northern netminder Lauren Esposito made 12 saves and her Ashland counterpart Annie Duncan seven as the Wildcats were outshot 37-22 overall and 22-18 in shots on goal.

NMU held a 26-18 edge in ground balls, though the Eagles were ahead on draw controls, 16-11, and had fewer turnovers, 20-17.

Lakosky had six of Northern’s draw controls, along with two ground balls and a caused turnover. Teammate Natalie Thomas had four ground balls, her high-water mark of the season.

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.