UP Gazette

The Northern Michigan University men's soccer team secured a 2-1 victory over Roosevelt University on Friday, disrupting the Lakers' pursuit of the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC) regular-season title. The match took place at NMU's home field in Marquette during the opening of senior weekend.

Roosevelt entered the game with hopes of clinching the GLIAC championship by winning their final two matches. However, NMU's win, combined with a Saginaw Valley victory elsewhere in the conference, resulted in Saginaw Valley being named the 2025 GLIAC Regular Season Champions.

With this result, NMU moved to within one point of third-place Parkside in the standings. If NMU wins its next match against Purdue Northwest and Parkside either draws or loses to Roosevelt on Sunday, NMU would move into third place and earn hosting rights for the first round of the GLIAC postseason.

"Another massive team win. Everybody put in a shift [today]," said head coach Alex Fatovic after the match. "They're the defending champions and first-place hopefuls for a reason… You're always going to get a champion's best effort, and it wasn't easy to see this one out, but we showed our toughness, grit, ability to defend leads, and manage leads while we're ahead. We're peaking at the right time."

The first half remained scoreless until five minutes before halftime when senior captain Alessandro Scialanga scored from a free kick just inside midfield. "He's absolutely massive for our team. He's an even better person than he is player, and I think he's the best left back in the country, so that speaks highly to who he is as a leader for our team. For him to come back from an injury a couple weeks ago, help his team, and then scores a goal like that, it's an unbelievable story, but not surprising because he's such a fantastic human," Fatovic said.

Shortly after Scialanga's goal, Roosevelt's Nikola Dimitrijevic was ejected with a straight red card for elbowing forward Luca Rosen in the head. This left Roosevelt down one player for nearly half of the match.

Early in the second half, Ian Weimer extended NMU's lead by scoring off a cross from Rosen. Since taking on an increased role midseason, Weimer has tallied three goals and one assist and now ranks second on his team in both goals scored and points. "[Weimer] is opening doors for us as a team. He's playing the nine [position] exactly how we want the nine to play, and that has allowed us to place our other players in the right position. He's been massive for us, and he's just getting better every single day," Fatovic commented.

Roosevelt responded with a goal around the hour mark through Schuster after Fynn Mewes provided an accurate pass behind NMU’s defense. Goalkeeper Asaf Kristal preserved NMU’s lead by making nine saves out of ten shots on target—including four key stops late in the game—and denied Mewes’ close-range header with only 30 seconds remaining.

"He's steady, experienced, and has been in these types of situations before. After conceding the goal, you need someone with ice in his veins, and I think he demonstrated that today. His handling was great in rough conditions… and he made smart decisions down the stretch to see this one through," Fatovic said about Kristal’s performance.

NMU will host Purdue Northwest on Sunday as part of its senior day celebrations at home.