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Takin’ care of business: ‘70s rock song describes Wildcats men’s soccer team, too

‘70s rock song describes Wildcats men’s soccer team, too

MARQUETTE -- The men's soccer team at Northern Michigan University is "takin' care of business," as 1970s rock group Bachman-Turner Overdrive once said.

The Wildcats gutted out a 2-1 victory over Roosevelt at the NMU Soccer Field on Sunday afternoon, remaining within a point of Saginaw Valley State, the leader in the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.

NMU improved to 9-4-2 overall and 6-2-2 in the GLIAC, good for 20 points, while SVSU bumped its marks to 8-1-5 overall and 6-1-3 league for 21 points after its own 2-1 victory over Purdue Northwest the same day.

Though there are only two games left in the regular season, one of them for Northern is at home vs. Saginaw Valley at noon Sunday. Following another home game vs. last-place Davenport at noon Friday, NMU's game against SVSU concludes the schedule before the GLIAC Tournament begins on Halloween weekend.

Sunday's victory also distanced NMU from Roosevelt, which a week ago had been tied for the top spot in the conference. But the Lakers -- one of three GLIAC schools with that nickname -- had come in playing one more game, and only played one game in the past week, the loss at Northern.

Roosevelt still remains third at 6-3-5 and 4-3-3 in the GLIAC, but with just 15 points is mathematically eliminated from winning the conference regular season.

The Wildcats' win Sunday was termed "scrappy" by NMU Sports Information, a seemingly apt term considered that the visitors outshot Northern 12-8 in all shots and 6-3 in shots on goal.

The Wildcats had to make two of those three shots on goal become plain ol' goals to earn a win, and that's exactly what they did.

Northern's Sergio Cano Castro and Marcos Gallardo Rozano each pumped in their second goal of the year, with the other shot on goal taken by Noah Preston-Watkins, who scored twice in NMU's 4-0 win Friday over St. Cloud State.

Like Friday's game, the Wildcats had to contend with blustery conditions, including winds whipping at nearly 30 mph up and down the pitch that they worked against in the first half.

Nevertheless, Northern played Roosevelt even in the first half as Cano Castro got his goal in the 33rd minute on what was termed a "brilliant" counterattack by NMU SI, starting and ending with the Gallardo Rozano. The freshman center-back ran the length of the pitch, through several defenders, then slid the ball to Cano Castro at the right side of the box for the score.

The Lakers answered less than 90 seconds later on the eighth goal of the season by Fynn Mewes after a Wildcats defensive header landed on the Roosevelt player's boot.

The visitors held an 8-3 advantage in total shots with the wind at their backs, also 5-1 in shots on goal. Stellar goalkeeping by the Wildcats' Asaf Kristal and defense by teammates Gallardo Rozano, Davian Gumbs, Noah Girard and James Carr were credited for keeping the game close.

With the teams turned around and the wind at the Wildcats' backs in the second half, they needed a little over 12 minutes to score the game-winner by Gallardo Rozano on what NMU SI termed the "defining moment of the second half."

A quick pass with top Northern scorer Luca Rosen from a corner kick brought the ball to Gallardo Rozano, whose left-footed kick fooled Roosevelt netminder Cedrik Stupler and curled into the far side.

One of the few statistics the Wildcats won was corner kicks, taking two to the Lakers' one. NMU was whistled for 16 fouls to Roosevelt's eight as each team was shown three yellow cards, though all of Northern's were in the final four minutes.

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.