NMU men’s soccer opens with impressive road win
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Northern Michigan University senior forward Luca Rosen puts on the captain's armband before the Wildcats men's soccer season opener against Northwood played in Midland on Thursday. (Photo courtesy NMU)
That's what the men's soccer team at Northern Michigan University did on Thursday with a 4-1 season-opening victory at Northwood, a former member of the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.
But its record now stands even at 1-1 after a 2-0 loss on Sunday at nationally ranked Tiffin.
The victory Thursday was the biggest margin of victory to open a season on the road in school history, while it also ranks second-best among all season openers, trailing only a 5-0 home win over Wisconsin-Superior in 2018.
"Fantastic result," NMU head men's soccer coach Alex Fatovic said in an NMU Sports Information news release detailing the result. "You can't ask for much more on opening day.
"Other than conceding the penalty late, it was basically a perfect opening day: no injuries, no red cards, (we) got goals from our big strikers, and good performances from everybody."
On Sunday, Northern scored late in regulation to tie the score 1-1, but the goal was disallowed for a call of offside. The Wildcats also hit a goal post and missed a wide-open net, otherwise Game 2 could've been an even more significant victory.
The Wildcats come home to play two of it next three contests at the NMU Soccer Field, which will also complete its nonconference schedule.
Northern hosts Lake Erie at 3 p.m. Thursday, travels to Saginaw Valley State for a nonconference encounter against the GLIAC team at noon Sunday, then returns home to face Jamestown at 1 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 12.
After that, the Wildcats open GLIAC play with another game -- this time counting in the conference standings -- at SVSU on Friday, Sept. 18.
Here are details from the season-opening games:
NMU 4, Northwood 1
On Thursday evening in Midland, Northern was on the attack from the get-go, the entire starting 11 creating turnovers, keeping possession and generating chances, according to NMU SI.
Senior captain Luca Rosen, a GLIAC First Teamer a year ago while leading the league in nearly every offensive category, picked up right where he left off with a pair of goals in the first eight minutes.
"(Luca) is our star, he's our goal-scorer and he's our captain, so to get him on the board with two goals in the first few minutes of the first match of the season, that's exactly what you want," Fatovic said of his goals spaced just 4 1/2 minutes apart. "You want him feeling comfortable and confident, and that will pose some challenges for the opposition because we have other guys who are really good up front."
After NMU won a corner kick about three minutes in, a perfectly placed in-swinging kick, Rosen capitalized on the scramble in the box for the first goal.
Less than five minutes later, Rosen combined with freshman Sergio Cano Castro to create a turnover near Northwood goalkeeper Albie Perez. Rosen made a tackle and sprinted the ball into the box and made a decisive right-footed strike to complete his two-goal brace less than 10 minutes into the season.
The goals four minutes and 35 seconds apart were just 28 seconds shy of the quickest two goals in program history, which was accomplished in the program's first year with varsity status in 2016.
The score remained 2-0 right through to halftime, but junior Noah Preston-Watkins changed that with another goal within the first 5 1/2 minutes of the second half, making it 3-0.
Coming out of the intermission, the Wildcats seemed to reignite the intensity they had to start the game, and it produced results. They created a turnover near the Northwood box as NMU junior midfielder Xhoel Lutaj intercepted an NU pass and found Preston-Watkins all alone on the left side of the box. The latter let go a convincing right-footed strike to beat Perez on the near side, according to NMU SI.
That allowed Fatovic to go deep into his bench, giving 23 players a chance on the pitch. In fact, no Northern player was in the game for the full 90 minutes.
Later in the second half, NMU forced another turnover, but Rosen's tap-in on a wide open net was deemed offside to deny him an opening-night hat trick.
In the final 10 minutes, Wildcats redshirt freshman Jadon Thang converted from the penalty spot to make it 4-0, with the Timberwolves knocking one home with barely more than 2 1/2 minutes remaining to stop a combined shutout by Northern goalkeepers Asaf Kristal and Robert Wright. Kristal played all but about the final seven minutes, making four saves in the quest for a shutout, while Wright had a save to go with the goal he allowed.
"An overall great team performance and some key individual performances as well," Fatovic said. "Davian Gumbs really stuck out to me with lots of effort, freshman Marcos (Gallardo Rozano) at center back played amazing, our central midfielders all played hard, and Noah with his first goal in an NMU shirt."
All the players getting in the game allowed for a number of regular-season debuts for the Wildcats -- Wright; Preston-Watkins; graduate student transfer Julius Lemm, a midfielder; junior transfer Brody Stanton, a forward; sophomore transfer Sam Pilgrim, a midfielder; sophomore Vinni DaSilva, a forward; and freshmen Marcos Gallardo Rozano, Sergio Cano Castro, Jonah Wallace, Sam Cooper, Jack Meyer and Matteo Przysucha.
"We talked about (depth) earlier in the week, and we played every active field player ... which was amazing," Fatovic in the aftermath of the game. "We always had somebody to throw in, and that speaks highly to our depth and how comfortable we are with a lot of different guys."
Tiffin 2, NMU 0
On Sunday afternoon in Tiffin, Ohio, the No. 25-ranked Dragons held a decisive shots advantage even as corner kicks were even, 5-5.
Tiffin held a 16-5 shots advantage, including 8-1 in shots on goal as Kristal made six saves in the NMU net.
The Dragons scored what proved to be the game winner in the 27th minute by Zach Garcia, then added insurance with exactly 10 minutes left by Noah Purtz.
In the opening half, Tiffin outshot NMU 9-1, including getting all four of the shots that were on goal, while Northern committed 11 fouls to five for their hosts and whistled for two yellow cards to one for TU.
"I think the guys struggled in the first half to adapt to a really good team who were athletic and posed a lot of challenges, and we really didn't play well as the half went on," Fatovic said in an NMU SI release about this game. "We were outshot, didn't have much possession of the ball, but we changed shape, and I thought the second half was fantastic.
"Obviously disappointed in the result, you never want to lose, but if we play the way we're capable and the way we played in that second half, I'm not concerned."
Statistics were more balanced after halftime, with the Dragons holding a 7-4 shots advantage and 4-1 in shots on goal as each team committed seven fouls and Tiffin issued two yellow cards to NMU's one.
Before the Dragons scored their insurance goal, the Wildcats tied it from deep into the goalkeeper box before it was waved off due to offsides.
Despite that, Fatovic was pleased with how his team played against a top team in the region.
"In the first 30 minutes or so (of the second half) we had a ton of chances," he said. "(We) hit the bar, missed an open net and a goal called back. So we were in it, generating chances and we felt very comfortable.
"The momentum was going our way, then they scored from the run of play on a breakout when we were pushing numbers."
This time around, five NMU players were in for a full 90 minutes -- Kristal and defenders Gallardo Rozano, Davian Gumbs, Noah Girard and James Carr.
Rosen was in for 85 minutes and Lemm for 86.
Gumbs was the lone Wildcat with two shots, while defender Asa Dean had their only shot on goal.
Story contents based on a pair of Northern Michigan University Sports Information press releases reviewing the games. Journal Sports Editor Steve Brownlee's email address is sbrownlee@miningjournal.net.