Rosen, Weimer score Wioldcat goals
ST. CLOUD, Minn. – The NMU men’s soccer team took care of business on the road today, shutting out the St. Cloud State Huskies in a 2-0 win.
The Wildcats (3-2-3, 2-2-0 GLIAC) opened the scoring 25 minutes into the game, earning a penalty from a hand-ball after minutes of sustained offensive pressure and dangerous chances to score. Luca Rosen was elected to take the penalty, and he made no mistake in finishing his right-footed attempt at goal, beeting the keeper to the bottom right. The Wildcats have now converted on both of its penalty attempts on the season, both of which were taken by Rosen.
The ‘Cats put the nail in the coffin late in the second half, putting the game away with five minutes left. Tyler Kowalczyk made a terrific defensive effort and played a long ball to a streaking Ian Weimer. Weimer played a pass to Teun Van Gansewinkel, who dribbled around the keeper and fired a shot that got blocked by a defender. The ball shot up in the air, and Weimer was there to knock the header in.
Goalkeeper Asaf Kristal and the Wildcats got the fourth shutout of the season, as the netminder made four saves.
“Another awesome road performance. The guys played fantastic for the full ninety minutes, and this was probably our best performance of the season from front to back,” said head coach Alex Fatovic, who oversaw his team snap a four-game winless streak against the Huskies, and securing the first win in St. Cloud since October 21, 2022. “We got the early goal and followed our game plan. I wasn’t too pleased with the start of the second half, but we made some great changes, and guys performed. Tyler Kowalczyk was awesome off the bench, [we got] a huge goal from Ian [Weimer] to close out the game, but a lot of individual and collective performances that got us our third shutout in five games on the road.”
The Wildcats are now 2-1-2 on the road, and have three shutouts while only allowing two goals against in five games played on the road. Though the win and full three points is nice, Fatovic says they have to now move their sights to next weekend.
“We’ll rest and recover, but there’s no time to really enjoy this as we have the league-leaders and elite eight co-champions from last season Saginaw Valley in town on Friday. Really pleased with the performance… another road win, another road shutout, and just exactly what we needed.”
