Journal Sports Staff
QUINCY, Ill. — The Northern Michigan University men’s soccer team is quickly shifting focus from its own offensive deficiencies to its opponents’ inability to score.
The Wildcats recorded their second consecutive shutout victory with a 2-0 victory Sunday afternoon in Quincy, Illinois.
Against the Hawks, for the second straight year, captain Tommaso Rami provided all the scoring NMU needed, last year scoring on a penalty kick in the 70th minute of a 1-0 win over Marquette, and this time scoring the team’s first goal in just 23 minutes.
Freshman Teun van Gansewinkel scored his first collegiate goal midway through the second half to put the Wildcats up 2-0 and set up the final point.
“I’m very proud of how we were able to hold a 1-0 lead at halftime and come away with the win.” “Big congratulations to Tommaso Rami for scoring his first goal since returning from injury and to Theun van Ganzewinkel for scoring his first career goal,” Northern coach Alex Fatovic said of the game in a news release from NMU Sports Information.
“Everybody really put in a master class performance, we had eight freshmen starting and at times it looked like we had eight seniors.
“Lewis is in town on Thursday so it won’t make the road any easier but for now we’ll enjoy this, recover and get ready for the home opener on Thursday afternoon.”
For the first goal, Rami steered the ball around a corner, dribbled past a defender and fired a shot into the far corner of the goal, while for the second, Van Ganzewinkel took a step back in the 18-yard box to create an opening and score, according to NMU SI.
Northern University held a large lead in total shots, 17 to 6, and shots on goal, 8 to 2. NMU also won six of the seven corner kicks it had in the match.
Eight Wildcat players took at least one shot, while Rami and Van Ganzewinkel each took four shots with three of them hitting the goal, the most for either team in both categories.
Freshman goaltender Nils Cedergren has kept a clean sheet for the second straight game, becoming the first NMU goaltender in program history to keep consecutive clean sheets in the first start of his career. He made two saves Sunday, but it was a pretty mediocre showing.
This week, Northern returns to Marquette University for its first home game of the season, as the Wildcats host Lewis University at NMU Soccer Field on Thursday at 2 p.m., before taking on Thomas More University at noon on Saturday.
Northern’s first GLIAC game will be Saturday, Sept. 21, at St. Cloud State University (Minn.).
Information was compiled by Journal Sports Editor Steve Brownlee. His e-mail address is sbrownlee@miningjournal.net.
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