Weimer’s goal in 88th minute makes the difference
UNIVERSITY CENTER, Mich. — The NMU men’s soccer team took down the No. 5 team in the country on Friday, clipping the Saginaw Valley State Cardinals 2-1 on the road.
The Wildcats (4-2-0, 1-0-0 GLIAC) opened conference play with some revenge, beating the Cardinals on its home pitch after falling 4-1 to SVSU just two weekends ago in the two sides’ non-conference matchup.
Sam Pilgrim and Ian Weimer found the back of the net, Luca Rosen made a smart play to assist on Weimer’s game-winning tally, and key defensive players Tyler Kowalczyk, Davian Gumbs, Marcos Gallardo Rozano, Noah Girard, and James Carr all played the full 90 minutes, to go with goalkeeper Asaf Kristal, who made five saves on the evening.
A physical back-and-forth game through and through, the Wildcats got phenomenal team effort from all throughout the lineup, and head coach Alex Fatovic had a lot of praise for his players’ performances.
“Yeah, a ton of credit to the guys. Unbelievable performance,” added head coach Fatovic when speaking to nmuwildcats.com in a post-game phone interview. “We came down here 12 days ago and lost 4-1, and for the last two weeks they trained hard, they prepared, they understood the matchup, and you could see in the first 15 minutes that they were following the game plan and they were making the right decisions based on the matchup.
“So many quality performances. Tyler Kowalczyk played his best game ever for me, and everyone in the back line: Davian Gumbs, Marcos Gallardo Rozano, Noah Girard, and James Carr. Ian Weimer played his best game and was rewarded with the game-winner. Everybody stepped up.
“It was such a win, and it’s massive for us. Not only in the standings and the rankings, but for our confidence and the head-to-head tiebreaker against Saginaw at the end of the season. We’re just really pleased with the effort.”
The Wildcats handed the No. 5 Cardinals (3-1-2, 1-1-0 GLIAC) its first loss of the season, holding a team that scored six goals on Wednesday to just one goal, just the second time this season the Cardinals have been held to fewer than two tallies.
NMU opened the scoring in the first half from the boot of Pilgrim, who struck a decisive right-footed free kick from near the touchline that curled in on the near post, giving NMU a 1-0 lead and scoring his first as a member of the Green and Gold.
“That’s what Pilgrim has. We know that he’s got set-piece magic, and it was a perfect time for his first NMU goal, and I think it was a well-deserved lead at half. We got some really good chances; I think we had some chances to go up 2-0 early in the second half. We had some breakaways, we had some chances, we had some 1-on-1s, but we didn’t do it. Then we let them into the game. You give them a thousand services eventually, you know, something’s going to find the net, and they did that.”
The Cardinals clawed back and found the equalizer, as Gabo Vazquez hit the crossbar before finding the rebound in the mad scramble inside the box to punch it over the line with just 10 minutes to play.
While a draw would have been a phenomenal result, senior captain Luca Rosen had other ideas. A ball was played out of bounds in the dying minutes, and Rosen was quick over the throw-in to catch SVSU off guard. His throw perfectly found the run of Ian Weimer, who volleyed a shot over the aggressive goalkeeper Kay, and Weimer found the game-winner and full three points with just two minutes to spare.
Head coach Fatovic talked about Rosen’s IQ, nose to find the goal, and being able to realize that opportunity was presented among the frantic dying moments of the match.
“I think it’s an elite-level understanding of the game, especially from an attacking player. He’s always thinking about ways to get in behind and score goals, even if he’s not the one shooting.
“We’re out of bounds, and I’m saying, ‘Hey, let’s slow it down. Let’s be conservative. Let’s not give anything away here.’ And he’s thinking, ‘Well, let’s go find a winner.’ He and [Ian] have a great connection, and they were on the spot.
“Pure soccer IQ. There are some players that just wouldn’t understand that moment, and he certainly did… Full credit to [Luca]. He can find so many different ways to influence the game, and today, again, in a huge way.”
Weimer picked up his first goal of the 2026 campaign at a crucial time, giving the forward a game-winning goal to go along with three assists in his past two matches.
“[Ian’s] number-one asset is always going to be his work rate and his pressing. He puts in hard work for the team, and that’s why he’s our starting forward… Maybe the goals haven’t fallen for him the way they necessarily did last year, but that’s the life of a forward, and you just keep going. He’s resilient, he’s got persistence, and he just kept going.
“You never know when you’re going to find that moment, and he gets in there with a chance to win the game in the 88th minute, and he buries it. So, full credit to him. I’m super happy that he finally got his first goal of the season, and a winning goal, too.”
The Wildcats now look ahead to Sunday, when the ‘Cats travel to Davenport to take on the Panthers. The Panthers will have had a few more days of rest compared to the Wildcats, playing the Cardinals two days prior on Wednesday.
“It’s going to be a tough one. They’re struggling right now, so you might look at it and think, ‘Oh well, we should go and smash them.’ But it’s not that easy. They didn’t play today, and we had a big, emotional, tough, grinding, physical win on the road. It’s going to be tough to recover from that and then put that same performance on the field two days later, especially when the other team is rested.
“So although maybe on paper, it looks like a game that we should handle, there’s no such thing as an easy game in the league, especially on the road. We’ve got to be prepared for a team that’s playing its first home game. They’re going to be up for it, they’re going to try to knock us off, and we’ve got to be ready for that.”
Kick-off from the DU Turf Field is set for 11 a.m. ET on Sunday, September 20.
