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Comeback for the ages: NMU women’s soccer erases 2-0 deficit in 2nd half to beat No. 16 St. Cloud

NMU women’s soccer erases 2-0 deficit in 2nd half to beat No. 16 St. Cloud

By Steve Brownlee 5 min read

MARQUETTE -- You couldn't ask for much better of a comeback.

In its season opener played on its home field Friday afternoon, the women's soccer team at Northern Michigan University fell behind 2-0 midway through the second half to nationally ranked St. Cloud State.

But the Wildcats dug deep and scored three unanswered goals in the final 21 minutes to pull out a 3-2 victory over the No. 16 Huskies at the NMU Soccer Field.

Northern actually needed barely more than eight minutes to score all its goals, meaning it had to hold on for the final 12 1/2 minutes to preserve its fresh 1-0 record.

"It doesn't get any more exciting than that, does it? I am so dang proud of this team," Wildcats head coach Erin Egolf said in an NMU Sports Information news release detailing the game. "Going down a goal is hard, and going down two goals puts you in a huge hole, and to be able to come back from that and do what we just did is special, and I think it speaks a lot to their mentality."

St. Cloud's Laney Haviland scored the only goal of the first half in the 30th minute despite Northern holding a 6-4 total shots edge before intermission. The teams each had two shots on goal in that time, while the Wildcats would finish with a 12-6 shots edge, including 7-4 in shots on goal.

For the day, St. Cloud held a 4-3 edge in corner kicks, with no player on either team having more than two total shots, and only one, the Huskies' Linsey Trapino, having two shots on goal.

The Huskies made it 2-0 not quite 24 minutes -- slightly more than halfway -- into the second half on a shot by Kelly Sprague.

But less than a minute after the second goal, 45 seconds later to be exact at 69:35, freshman Cecilia Wille got Northern on the scoreboard, with an assist going to senior and Marquette Senior High School graduate Isabella Lorens, to restore a real sense of optimism to the Wildcats.

Then exactly four minutes later, another NMU freshman, this time Izzy Armstrong, knotted the score 2-2. She was credited with creating phenomenal offensive pressure on SC goaltender Zoe Fujino to produce a turnover that resulted in a tap-in, according to NMU SI.

And if all that wasn't enough, another four minutes and one second after that, a third freshman, Lily Senese, put the Wildcats ahead for good.

That score was set up by Lorens gaining possession of the ball on the right side of the field before she drove into the attacking area and served up a high-swinging ball. Senese got her head on the ball and knocked it home on what NMU SI described as a "highlight-reel goal."

While the starters played a key role throughout, each of the Northern goals came from players who came in as substitutes. Wille and Armstrong both finished with 20 minutes playing time, while Senese and Lorens totaled 30 and 31 minutes, respectively.

Egolf credited her team's trio of preseason games played during the previous 10 days as allowing her to play every healthy player and get heaps of near-real-game experience.

"We've talked all preseason about the lift we've gotten off the bench in our exhibition games, and it showed again (Friday)," the coach said to NMU SI. "That's why you never know when your time's going to come, and you'll always have to be prepared.

"Our bench did a great job; the girls coming onto the field did a great job; our bench energy was electric as well, and everyone had a job to do today. 

"I can't say enough about our depth. What we saw (Friday) was a small subsection of what we're going to see throughout the course of the season. We have a lot of good players and a lot of competition, and again, the resilience that we had to come and fight back is incredible." 

Lorens, a forward and the only Upper Peninsula native on the roster, recorded her first two assists at NMU.

But her impact was even greater than that, also winning battles and creating opportunities in the offensive zone, according to her coach.

"(Bella's) been very, very good this preseason," Egolf said. "We know what she has to offer -- she's exciting going forward, she's a hard worker, she likes to face up and take players on, and she did that very successfully today.

"Not only with the assists, but she also won us some corners, and so I'm proud of that kid. She did a really nice job for us today and made a difference."

Northern remained home for its second game on Sunday afternoon against Minnesota-Duluth before it hits the road for a pair of games in Cedarville, Ohio, later this week. The Wildcats face site host Cedarville at 7 p.m. Thursday before playing a neutral-site match there against former GLIAC member Northwood at noon Saturday.

NMU returns home to open the conference season at 3 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 11, against Grand Valley State.

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

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