Northern Michigan University’s Justina L’Espérance kicks a teammate during a GLIAC women’s soccer game played against Wisconsin-Parkside at the NMU soccer field in Marquette on Friday, Nov. 1. (Photo provided by Cara Kamps)

By Journal Sports staff

MARQUETTE — The Northern Michigan University women’s soccer team prepared for a winner-take-all game this week for the GLIAC regular season championship after the Wildcats defeated Wisconsin-Parkside 5-0 in their final game at home Friday afternoon.

The Wildcats are one point ahead of second-place Grand Valley State as they face off at Allendale at 5 p.m. Thursday in each team’s penultimate game of the regular season.

These two teams, however, are guaranteed to host matches in the first round of the GLIAC tournament.

NMU (11-3-2 overall) has 28 points from 12 league games based on its 9-2-1 record, where wins are three points and ties are one point. GVSU (11-1-4) is 8-1-3 in the GLIAC for 27 points, although both are listed with a .792 winning percentage.

The Wildcats also have one more game after facing GVSU, this one at fifth-place Saginaw Valley State on Saturday at noon.

The GLIAC tournament opens a week from today with quarterfinals at the four top-ranked college sites. The top-ranked survivor is scheduled to host the semi-finals and final on November 15-17.

This all comes into place after Northern dominated Parkside on Friday at Marquette. Not only did the Wildcats score five times, but they held a huge advantage over the Rangers of 26-10 in total shots and 17-5 in shots on goal, in addition to making seven of the game’s nine corner kicks.

The score was distributed as five players each scored a goal. While scorers Brooke Pietila and Molly Pistorius also had two assists each, a few other players also had assists for seven players earning points.

NMU goalkeeper Sally Patton made three saves in her 59 minutes, while Jillian Thompson came on for the final 31 minutes and added two more saves to combine for the shutout.

Despite the relatively high score, nothing happened on the scoreboard during the first half hour of the match.

Then in the 32nd minute, Pistorius, Pietila and Hannah Kastamo started a nice sequence, according to a match report from NMU Sports Information. Pistorius delivered a superb cross into the box, bouncing straight into the path of Pietila. The latter timed her shot to score.

The score remained 1-0 at halftime, but that wouldn’t last long once the match resumed.

Less than two minutes after the restart, Pietila took a corner which found the head of Maria Storm, who scored the goal.

Just two minutes later, Pietila took another corner, which fell to Pistorius, whose shot was redirected by Calihan Bearden for another score.

Now 3-0 less than four minutes into the second half, Northern scored again about 10 minutes after the previous goal. Pietila sent a ball to Kastamo, who carried it down the right flank before unleashing a shot which Pistorius redirected.

And the final goal was the product of two other players not involved in the previous score. Alyse Daavettila demonstrated her playmaking ability with a perfect pass to Ashley Koch, who took her chance and slotted the ball home in the 77th minute.

Pietila led all players with six total shots and five shots on goal, while Pistorius chipped in with five total shots and three on goal. Additionally, Bearden had three shots, all three on goal, while Kastamo had two shots, one on goal.

In total, 14 Wildcats took at least one shot, nine had at least one shot on goal.

Information compiled by Journal Sports Editor Steve Brownlee. His email address is [email protected].