Local Sports

Rosen, Kristal key NMU men to 1-0 victory

MARQUETTE -- The men's soccer team at Northern Michigan University used a familiar formula to cement its position atop the conference on Sunday afternoon.

Let senior captain Luca Rosen handle the scoring and senior goalkeeper Asaf Kristal handle keeping the ball out of the net at the NMU Soccer Field.

Each did their jobs in Northern's 1-0 home victory over Wisconsin-Parkside as the Wildcats improved to 7-2-2 overall and 4-0-2 in the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.

NMU has built a three-point lead -- the equivalent of a victory -- with 14 points in the league, while second-place teams Roosevelt and Saginaw Valley State each have 11 points with 3-1-2 records in the GLIAC.

Parkside slipped to 3-6-1 and 1-4-1 after its loss, which wasn't determined until the final 10 minutes.

With 9:45 left on the clock in a scoreless game, Rosen was in the penalty area and brought down with a poor Parkside tackle, earning the penalty kick. He strode up confidently and booted the ball past Rangers netminder Mateusz Pass, who finished with nine saves.

Kristal stopped all five shots he faced for his and NMU's third straight shutout, the team's only three of the season.

That build Northern's unbeaten streak to seven games, a 5-0-2 record in those, while not giving up more than a single goal in any of them and holding an 18-4 scoring margin.

Rosen didn't wait so long to score out of any patience on his part. He finished the day with 12 shots, six of them on net. All told, NMU took 26 shots as a team, getting 10 of them on goal.

Parkside also had a good number, just not as many as the Wildcats -- 17 shots with five on goal.

Northern also took nine of the game's dozen corner kicks.

"Huge win," Wildcats head coach Alex Fatovic said in an NMU Sports Information news release detailing the game. "Obviously, six-point weekend, there's nothing better than that.

"It was a perfect weekend, but it took all game for us to get the result, and I think that's huge for us in the long run, because now we can actually sweat out wins. We can grind out wins, so huge performance."

This also marked Fatovic's first home victory over Parkside in his now fifth year at the Northern helm.

The Rangers' goalie was credited with stopping what NMU SI described as "grade-A opportunities" from Rosen and teammates Sergio Cano Castro and Xhoel Lutaj. Cano Castro finished with five shots and three on goal, while Lutaj hit a ball destined to score only to have Pass get his outstretched hand on it to redirect to the crossbar and away.

"Their goalkeeper just played a fantastic game, game of his life, kept his team in it all game long, but then finally the breakthrough from who other than Luca Rosen," Fatovic said. "So fantastic results, third shutout in a row, and there's nothing better than two wins on the weekend.

"We created five or six world-class chances in the first 20 minutes to try to take the lead, and you know, as I said, the keeper was fantastic.

"The resiliency in the back to not concede, not giving anything away, was fantastic. Clean sheet again, really pleased with that. Huge gutty win."

He pointed out senior defender Davian Gumbs as a key member of the back line for his effort, energy and crucial tackling, while Marcos Gallardo Rozano, Noah Girard and James Carr all played a full 90 minutes.

The Wildcats hit the road for the final time before coming home for the final four games of the regular season that culminates in the last week of this month.

This week's tests are at noon Friday in Kenosha, Wisconsin, vs. Parkside, making it unusual back-to-back games vs. the Rangers, and at 3 p.m. Sunday in Hammond, Indiana, vs. Purdue Northwest.

Northern comes home with the next encounter at the NMU Soccer Field being at 3 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 16, vs. St. Cloud 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.