Worst to first — to NCAAs? NMU men’s soccer wins GLIAC tourney, looking for nat’ls bid | News, Sports, Jobs

A Northern Michigan University player celebrates on the sidelines with fans after a GLIAC men’s soccer game played against Purdue Northwest at the NMU Soccer Field in Marquette on Nov. 2. (Photo courtesy Cara Kamps)

Despite that call becoming more common all across the sports world over the years, it still seems amazing that a team that couldn’t get past anyone in its league at one time becomes the cream of the crop, the best that can be offered up, just a year later.

That’s what the men’s soccer team at Northern Michigan University has done, going from being the only team in the seven-team league to not qualify for the conference tournament in 2024 to being the champions of that event on Sunday.

The Wildcats clinched the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference tourney title with a 1-0 victory over semifinals and finals host Saginaw Valley State, seemingly earning a spot in the NCAA Division II national tournament.

In some sports like basketball, it’s an automatic qualification, but nothing indicated by either NMU or NCAA websites said how 19 automatic qualifiers are determined in the 40-team field. The Wildcats were to watch online at NCAA.com on Monday evening to find out what the field will look like.

The Northern Michigan University men’s soccer team celebrates on the Saginaw Valley State pitch in University Center after capturing the GLIAC Tournament men’s soccer championship with a 1-0 victory over the host Cardinals on Sunday. (Photo courtesy NMU)

“They’re such hard workers, and they always respond, and they just love each other, and I think that’s the key,” the ever-optimistic Northern head coach Alex Fatovic said in an NMU Sports Information news release detailing the game. “When you get a group of guys that are so passionate about each other, they’re going to work hard and dig deep.

“And for being up a goal for 15 minutes in the GLIAC Championship game with an immense amount of pressure, they hung tough, and I’m just so proud of them.”

Wildcats senior Jan Hoffmann, junior James Carr and sophomores Quint van Roij and Ian Weimer led the largest contingent from any school on the All-Tournament Team.

This marks NMU’s first GLIAC Tournament championship in the program’s 10th year, dating back to 2016. In fact, it was the Wildcats’ first appearance in the finals.

In showing how deep this Northern team is, the goal-scoring leader all season AND the player who scored Sunday’s lone goal weren’t among the NMU quartet on the all-tourney team.

Junior Luca Rosen led Wildcats with nine goals and 22 points this season, and while he didn’t score the finals winner, he did assist on it.

That goal was scored by sophomore Tyler Kowalczyk, not only his first goal this season that doubled his point total to four, but the first goal of his collegiate career.

“This is a big moment for everybody, not just me, but the whole team,” Kowalczyk said to NMU SI. “Scoring the game-winning goal in the championship is a moment that I’ve been dreaming about since I was a kid.

“I made a run to the back post, Luca made a play to me, and I just tapped it in. I was in the right place at the right time.”

Northern entered Sunday’s game as the No. 3 seed in the event as the third-place team during the regular season with a 6-4-2 league record, now 9-4-6 overall.

SVSU earned the host’s position for this game as No. 1 in the league at 9-2-1, 11-3-4 overall, with a possible NCAA tourney at-large bid in play for the Cardinals.

The NCAA situation had to produce plenty of tension at the University Center field, located between Saginaw and Bay City, which certainly wouldn’t have abated as the game remained scoreless beyond the 70th minute.

Fatovic’s optimism must’ve rubbed off on his players, too.

“As the season went on and we were winning more games and getting in better shape towards the end, I knew we could go all the way, and we did it,” senior Alessandro Scialanga said to NMU SI. “We have a fantastic group of guys. We have a lot of support, a great coaching staff … and this has been our strength all season long.

“Everybody from the bench can come in and put up a performance, and that’s our main asset.”

Another senior, Hoffmann, was almost at a loss for words after toiling on the collegiate pitch since everyone was just coming out of the dark days of the coronavirus pandemic.

“A lot is going through my mind, but this is everything and means the world to me,” he said to NMU SI. “We said we could do it, and we did it.

“This trophy is a tribute to everyone who supported us, but I also know that there is a lot to come for the younger guys. There are a lot of good things coming to this program in the future.”

Maybe it was a good thing that Northern opened Sunday’s game facing into a cold and blustery wind, as the Wildcats had the two best scoring chances of the first half, both by Rosen.

Still, the Cardinals had a stretch of six corner kicks in about 15 minutes before intermission. SVSU also held a 7-4 total shots advantage in the first half, while the teams were even 2-2 in shots on target.

“The wind was an issue today, although I still think we got a couple of really good chances in the first half and it was a really even game,” Fatovic said. “We wanted to get to halftime at 0-0; we knew it would change the game.”

The wind did nothing to abate in the second half, with it favoring the Wildcats now.

With 19:30 remaining in regulation, Kowalczyk finished off a perfect passing play from Rosen and Carr, Carr coming back in after being subbed off due to an injury he sustained just a minute into the second half.

“The second half was weird,” Fatovic said. “We got an injury early, and then it was a back-and-forth battle against a really good team.

“You’re never going to get an easy result against them, but we found a moment, then we just dug deep and found a way to see this one out.”

Carr’s injury was a dislocated elbow sustained shortly after play resumed for the second half, and his return paid off as he had an “international” — three assists over the weekend.

“The elbow popped out, he popped it back in, and he said to me, ‘I’m going back in this game.’ James embodies the toughness that we have as a team,” the coach said.

“We’ve got guys for critical situations and different moments, and we were looking for how we were going to finish this one out. Max (Rebori) hadn’t played in four games, and this was a big moment for him in the dying embers. Just like Isaac (Cervantes) coming in, we have a guy for every situation.”

In addition, NMU goalkeeper Asaf Kristal earned his ninth shutout of this season.

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.