Wildcats men’s soccer awaits word on NCAA tourney fate
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UNIVERSITY CENTER -- The men's soccer team at Northern Michigan University is waiting on pins and needles for an announcement this evening about the field that will constitute the NCAA Division II tournament.
That happened after the Wildcats lost to Purdue Northwest 1-0 in the semifinals of the conference tournament on Friday afternoon.
NMU would've needed a win in that game and Sunday's championship game in the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference to gain the league's automatic berth to the NCAAs.
Now they have to wait. The selection show is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. and can be seen online at NCAA.com.
Northern finished second in the GLIAC regular season, now at 10-6-2 overall and 7-3-2 in league games, good for 23 points. That was two points behind regular season champ Saginaw Valley State, which hosted the tourney semis and finals but was also upset in penalty kicks after a 1-1 tie with Roosevelt earlier Friday.
The Lakers from Chicago went on to turn their No. 5 tourney seed into the tourney title after a 2-1 win over Purdue NW on Sunday.
An NMU win Friday might've gone a long way toward their NCAA entry, with that one extra win maybe swaying the decision-making committee. Northern entered the weekend as the No. 4 seed in its region with six at-large spots available in the Super Region 3 among four conferences.
For NMU, it wasn't to be as Purdue NW scored the game's only goal 1:35 before halftime. The Lions also held an 18-9 advantage in total shots and 6-2 in shots on goal as Northern's Asaf Kristal made five saves and his PNW counterpart Estefano Alvear was only called upon to make two.
NMU's shots on goal came from Marcos Gallardo Rozano and Xhoel Lutaj, while Sam Pilgrim had three total shots.
But it was the Lions' Landon Potts who was the game's star, scoring the only goal as he had four shots on goal and six total shots.
He scored from a deflection off NMU's Gallardo Rozano, a GLIAC First Team selection, who tried to stop Potts' shot but unfortunately for the Wildcats, kicked the ball up an over Kristal's outstretched hand.
Northern played the first half into a cold, strong west wind and also without GLIAC Freshman of the Year Sergio Cano Castro and defensive mainstay Noah Girard, both out with one-game suspensions from an accumulation of yellow cards. In addition, Noah Preston Watkins, playing in place of Cano Castro, went down with an injury about 20 minutes in chasing down a pass.
In the final 10 minutes before halftime, NMU's Davian Gumbs, a GLIAC honorable mention, stole the ball near midfield and made a pass to Lutaj, who couldn't quite corral it.
Kristal had already made two big desperation saves on Potts a few minutes before he scored, but PNW used the wind to its advantage for a 12-2 edge in total shots in the opening 45 minutes.
In the second half, Pilgrim had a free kick that curled just over the crossbar, while teammates Luca Rosen, James Carr and Gallardo Rozano each had corner kicks that didn't pan out.
Another Wildcat, Vinni DaSIlva, hit a ball just over the bar from near the penalty area in the last few minutes, while Kristal made a late save on Potts.
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Northern Michigan University's Xhoel Lutaj gives the ball a mighty boot during a GLIAC game played against Purdue Northwest at the NMU Soccer Field in Marquette on Oct. 2. (Photo courtesy Cara Kamps)