NMU men move back atop GLIAC soccer with Friday victory
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MARQUETTE -- The door has suddenly swung in favor of the men's soccer team at Northern Michigan University.
Two weeks ago, the Wildcats fell out of the top spot and all the way into third place following a pair of shutout losses in the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.
But keeping close to the leaders has paid off for NMU, which moved back atop the league with Friday's 3-2 victory over league foe Davenport at the NMU Soccer Field.
Coupled with former leader Saginaw Valley State's 2-2 tie with the same Davenport team on Wednesday, Northern made up two points on the Cardinals to go from one point behind them to one point in front of them.
Why is that important? Well, these teams have exactly one game left in the regular season, and yes, it comes against each other. The game will be played at noon Sunday back at the NMU Soccer Field.
By virtue of going back on top of the standings, a tie will do just fine to give the Wildcats the regular season title and No. 1 seed in the upcoming GLIAC tournament. It's something Northern has never done in its decade-long history.
The Wildcats improved to 10-4-2 overall and 7-2-2 in the league, good for 23 points, while SVSU is 8-1-6 and 6-1-4 in the conference, worth 22 points. No other team is closer than six points to the Cardinals, including Davenport in sixth place at 3-9-5 and 2-7-3, or nine points.
On Friday afternoon, the Wildcats had to come from behind twice before finally taking the lead for the first time -- and last time -- with just under 20 minutes left.
As the score would indicate for this sport, this game was full of offense. Northern finished with a 23-14 advantage in total shots, including 12-4 in shots on goal.
Goalkeeper Asaf Kristal finished with two saves, while his Panthers counterpart Carter McGowan had nine stops.
Davenport opened the scoring in the 16th minute when Kevin Hubbell knocked in the ball with assists going to Ethan Engle and Archie Oliver.
Recent NCAA Division II
Northern Michigan Univesity's James Carr, left, celebrates with teammate Sam Pilgrim during the Wildcats GLIAC men's soccer game played against Davenport at the NMU Soccer Field in Marquette on Friday. (Photo courtesy NMU)
But Hubbell wasn't done, doubling his goal total this season to four as Oliver and Dean Matyunas got assists to make it 2-1 about nine minutes after Rosen's score.
Northern also wasn't done. Waiting about 10 minutes and not quite three minutes before halftime, NMU drew a free kick just outside the box that landed in a "mass of humanity," according to NMU SI. Rosen and redshirt freshman teammate Noah Girard settled the ball to the foot of senior defender James Carr, who smashed it home.
Coming back out of intermission still tied 2-2, the Wildcats began to dominate play with a more favorable wind, outshooting DU 10-3 in the second half. Then a little more than 26 minutes into the second half, NMU junior Ian Weimer disrupted a Panthers free kick, with the ball landing to graduate student Julius Lemm's feet. He played it to the other end with the race on.
Rosen proved faster as he streaked in 1-on-1 with McGowan to knock home his second goal of the day and 16th of the season.
Despite the shots advantage, Davenport took five of the game's seven corner kicks as fouls were nearly even, DU taking one more, 12-11. The Panthers also "won" the yellow card battle by one, 3-2.
With Northern regulars on defense Davian Gumbs and Marcos Gallardo Rozano unavailable, junior Isaac Cervantes and freshman Jack Meyer moved into the starting lineup. Cervantes, Carr, Girard and Xhoel Lutaj each played a full 90 minutes.
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.