• Northern Michigan University hosts GLIAC Tournament semifinals Friday and championship Sunday at the NMU Soccer Field

• No. 1 seed NMU vs. No. 5 seed Davenport, 2 p.m. Friday; championship, 2 p.m. Sunday; Radio: WUPT 100.3 FM The Point

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MARQUETTE — Mount Marquette isn’t a volcano — at least not an active one for millions of years — but the nearby NMU Soccer Field was erupting with goals on Tuesday afternoon when the GLIAC champion Northern Michigan University women’s soccer team blew out Michigan Tech 5-0 in the conference quarterfinals.

Northern Michigan University’s Caitlyn Trombley, left, attempts to block a kick by Michigan Tech's Amelia Gregory as Gregory overruns the ball during their GLIAC Tournament women’s soccer quarterfinal match played at the NMU Soccer Field in Marquette on Tuesday. (Photo courtesy Cara Kamps)

The big victory not only kept the Wildcats alive in the GLIAC Tournament, but allows NMU to host this weekend’s tourney semifinal and final rounds. Northern faces the lowest seeded team remaining, No. 5 Davenport, at 2 p.m. Friday at the school’s home field, which is the second game of a doubleheader after No. 2 Grand Valley State squares off against No. 3 Saginaw Valley State at 11 a.m.

Friday’s winners advance to the Sunday championship game scheduled for 2 p.m. At stake will be the tourney championship and also the league’s automatic berth into the NCAA Division II Tournament.

All three games will be featured on the video website FloFC, while NMU matches are scheduled to be broadcast on radio station WUPT 100.3 The Point.

Three other quarterfinal matches were played Tuesday to determine the semifinalists. In each of those games, the victor won 1-0, SVSU not getting its goal until overtime.

Northern needed less than 10 minutes to exceed every one of those winning teams on the scoreboard.

In all, the Wildcats pumped in four goals before the 90-minute game was 14 minutes old to turn what is usually a tense matchup between these Upper Peninsula rivals into a laugher.

It could’ve been foreseen as NMU won the GLIAC regular season title with a 9-2-3 record (12-3-4 overall), while the Huskies struggled home in the 10-team league in eighth place at 4-8-1 (6-10-1 overall).

But apparently the Wildcats took their challenge seriously from the get-go to post their 10th shutout this season.

“This is a group that has been together for awhile now,” Northern head coach Jon Sandoval said in his post-game conference as relayed by NMU Sports Information in its news release on the game. “They understand how we operate and how we play, they’re a group that really plays for one another when it comes to being unselfish, and goes that extra yard for a teammate, and as a coach, that’s really exceptional to see.”

The Wildcats’ season goal total reached 52, surpassing the program’s previous best of 49 set by a Sandoval team in 2021.

“We came out with a lot of energy, enthusiasm and effort, especially considering it’s a Tuesday after we played two matches on the weekend,” Sandoval said. “To have that amount of grit to get into it right away was really impressive.”

NMU needed an entire 90 seconds to open the scoring, taking advantage of a deep throw-in in MTU territory. Hannah Kastamo made the throw to Molly Pistorius, who took the ball at her feet and moved past a pair of defenders to the touchline on the right side of the box.

Pistorius sent a cross from the line toward the penalty spot, finding the foot of Justina L’Esperance, who scored her league-leading 11th goal.

Madison Bilbia, Calihan Bearden and L’Esperance with her second of the day added goals over the next 12 minutes to make it 4-0 quickly.

“(The playoffs) is a new season, and teams are remembered for what they do in November, which is something we really talked about leading up to this,” Sandoval said. “Not being complacent while also not letting the highs of winning the (regular season) conference championship be too high.

“We have goals to hopefully win the double (regular season and tournament titles) and to play our best soccer, so it was great to see them come out with that type of intensity and effort.”

Brooke Pietila, who played in her record-setting 94th match as a Wildcat, registered a pair of assists to break another NMU record, becoming the holder of the most career multiassist games with five.

Kastamo also finished with a pair of assists while Pistorius had a helper of her own.

Northern goaltender Sally Patton made two saves in the first 53 minutes before Emily Whyte came on as a substitute, making two saves of her own to preserve the shutout.

Northern made a lot of substitutions, as the only starter to play more than 43 minutes was Patton. Though deep into the reserves, Sandoval mentioned that the bar for his expectations doesn’t move.

“When we made a lot of changes, we wanted to make sure we kept the shutout,” he said. “It was important for us to play positively … and all around it was a really great effort from everyone.

“We need to understand that not every game is going to be like (the game we just played). Davenport is a very physical and tough team that we are 1-1 with on the year.

“If we get complacent, don’t show up and don’t do our job, it could be a tough day for us.”

After L’Esperance netted her first goal, the Wildcats needed 7 1/2 minutes before scoring again. Pietila settled the ball down about 20 yards into the attacking zone, according to NMU SI. She made a pass forward to Bilbia, who dribbled around her defender to enter the right side of the box. Bilbia took a thunderous strike with her left boot, beating diving Husky keeper Bri Barrows to the bottom left side. Barrows finished with four saves.

Another three minutes later at the 12:09 mark, Kastamo drove to the right touchline from just outside the box and made a powerful cross toward the middle. The pass was headed in by Bearden.

Then on a nearly identical play not quite 90 seconds after that, Kastamo made the same pass to the same area, this time redirected by Pietila to a wide-open L’Esperance who knocked it in near the top of the goal.

After that, Sandoval began taking his starters out and cycling through reserves, playing nearly everyone who was healthy by halftime.

When the starters returned to begin the second half, NMU got its final goal barely three minutes in. Pietila shielded off her defender before flicking a pass to Angelina Perritano right down the middle of the park, according to NMU SI. Perritano stepped into a right-footed strike from outside the 18-yard box that hit the right crossbar and down.

The reserves came in again after that, including Whyte seeing her first action this season.

Information compiled by Journal Sports Editor Steve Brownlee. His email address is sbrownlee@miningjournal.net.