UP Gazette

The Northern Michigan University men's soccer team secured its first conference win of the 2025 season with a 1-0 victory over Purdue Northwest Pride in Hammond, Indiana. This marks the Wildcats' first win at Purdue Northwest since October 24, 2021, when they also won by a single goal.

Luca Rosen scored the only goal of the match after receiving passes from Teun Van Gansewinkel and James Carr. Goalkeeper Asaf Kristal recorded his third shutout of the season and his first in conference play.

"Extremely proud of the boys today," said head coach Alex Fatovic. "There is no such thing as an easy road GLIAC game, and this game was no different. Massive team effort from everyone to get our first conference win under tough conditions, and now we turn our attention to a huge game against the defending champions on Sunday."

Defenders Alessandro Scialanga, Terry Grimaldi, Quint Van Roij, and Owen Rutledge each played the full match, contributing to the clean sheet. James Carr played 88 minutes and Andrea Mercanti logged 75 minutes.

Despite being outshot 20-7 and conceding 13 corners—the most since November 4, 2021—the Wildcats managed three shots on target to match Purdue Northwest's total. The Pride have now failed to win back-to-back home games for only the second time in three years and were held scoreless for just the second time this season.

Rosen has now scored in consecutive matches, becoming the first Wildcat to do so since Scialanga achieved it last season. Van Gansewinkel picked up his first assist of the year and is tied for the team lead in points. Under Fatovic's leadership, NMU has tallied at least three shutouts in each of his four seasons through six games.

The Wildcats will next travel to Chicago to face Roosevelt Lakers, who are both reigning GLIAC regular season and co-tournament champions. The match is scheduled for Sunday at Morris Field with a 3 p.m. ET kickoff.