The NMU soccer team won two of three games in a four day stretch, with victories at home against St. Cloud State 2-1 on Sunday and Lewis University 1-0 on Tuesday.
The one Wildcat loss to Bemidji State however was controversial. Bemidji scored the only goal of the contest with 1:23 left in the game on what could have been an offsides.
“For me to look back and see a girl five feet in front of me — there’s something wrong,” said Meghan Sarna senior defense. “There was no call and it was unfortunate.”
Head Coach Matt Granstrand defended his captain’s stance, but added that you still have to score to win.
“[Soccer] is like hockey in this sense, you can dominate the game and not get the goals,” Granstrand said. “We played well and it’s unfortunate, but we can’t dwell on that goal.”
The Wildcats dominated this game stats wise, out shooting their opponent 15-8. Bemidji had no shots on goal until 9:30 left in the first half. Kara Music, the NMU goalkeeper, got credit for 5 saves.
Northern did earn redemption with an overtime victory against St. Cloud on Sunday. TheWildcats got on the scoreboard when Ashley DeKeyser found the back of the net for an unassisted goal at the end of the 61 minute. The Huskies responded less than four minutes later, as Sophomore Lindsey Sather grabbed her first goal of the season.
The game stayed tied 1-1 until senior midfielder Ellen Frondorf scored 2:58 into overtime, assisted by Sarna.
The Wildcats once again lead in shots taken and shots on goal 10-8 and 7-4 respectively.
The game was a defensive stand off for the full 90 minutes, with only two shots on goal in the entire contest. Both shots on goal came from the Wildcats.
The one goal came from a free kick by Sarna at 75:57. The goal was unassisted and this was the senior’s first college goal.
“I got goose bumps,” Sarna said. “We went over certain plays for direct free kicks and they had a wall of players to protect the goal because it was a direct. So I aimed at the heads of the people in the wall and one of the defenders moved and it went in the top left corner.”
In the tournament the games are all played against non-conference opponents, but regional teams.
This games help increasing Ratings Percentage Index, which is a figure used later to help determine who gets selected to the NCAA
“[The invite] is good,” Jim Stone, head coach of Bemidji State, said. “We get to play two solid games against quality teams and it helps us with our conference play. Plus it’s a great time to come to Northern Michigan .”
The Wildcats are now 2-1 overall as they prepare for a six game home stand going from this Friday to September 21. The first three games will be played against non conference opponents, but the last three will be conference games, including the Sept. 19 game against Grand Valley, ranked number one in the preseason Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference polls.
