After starting the season with two straight losses, the NMU Men’s Soccer team is beginning to find its stride with three straight victories.

Northern (3-2) comes off of two consecutive road shutouts of Purdue Northwest University and Upper Iowa University. NMU clawed past the Pride with a 1-0 victory on Sunday, March 28 and roared past the UIU Peacocks 2-0 this past Saturday, April 3. Head Coach David Poggi knows that his team is starting to turn it around, and they have won the past two matches the same way.

“It’s probably the same as the week before, grind it out. [Upper Iowa was] still in the match at the end and some big stops by our goaltender [sophomore Alex Weaver], we did a great job,” Poggi said. “We’re just finding a way to win, I wouldn’t say that we’re ready to be put in an art gallery for what we’re doing, but I’d say we’re definitely learning which colors to use and that’s getting us through it and hopefully continuing to build on it for this next weekend.”

The game was scoreless for over 85 of the 90 minutes, but NMU squeaked in two goals right before the end of the first half from a pair of midfielders, sophomore Ryan Palmbaum and freshman Cole Walgren. Like Poggi mentioned, Weaver came through for the ‘Cats, saving all five Upper Iowa shots. Now NMU needs to turn its attention to this weekend’s anticipated home game against Northwood University.

“Well if there’s one team that we’ve developed a rivalry with, Tech doesn’t have men’s soccer so we can’t claim them as our rival, but Northwood definitely is. We’ve had real tight matches with them ever since we started the program here, they’ve been around for a long time,” Poggi said. “They’ve got a history, a tradition. They’re well-coached, they’re very direct, pretty similar to the way we played with Ashland. I think that there could be a lot of goals scored in the match this weekend just because both teams will be battling.”

Kickoff takes place on Sunday, April 11 at the Superior Dome between the Wildcats and Timberwolves at noon.