UNIVERSITY CENTER, Mich. – The Saginaw Valley State University men's soccer team earned a 4-1 victory over Northern Michigan on Sunday afternoon at Robert C. Braddock Field in a rematch of last season's GLIAC Championship match.
Despite the familiarity between the conference foes, Sunday's contest was a non-conference matchup and marked the first of three scheduled meetings between the Cardinals and Wildcats this season.
Saginaw Valley (2-0-2) received goals from Amadou Kouyate (Ann Arbor, Mich., Community HS) and Adrian Hatman (Hîncesti, Moldova, Lucian Blaga) before Matty Telfer (Newcastle, England, Sunderland College) struck twice late to put the match away. The Cardinals outshot Northern Michigan 12-7, placed eight attempts on goal and held a 6-1 advantage in corner kicks.
SVSU opened the scoring in the 10th minute. Hatman set up Kouyate, who found the back of the net for his first goal of the season and an early 1-0 Cardinal advantage.
Northern Michigan answered in the 22nd minute with a rare, indirect free kick goal.
The tie lasted just over five minutes. Saginaw Valley earned a penalty kick in the 27th minute, and Hatman converted from the spot to restore the Cardinal lead at 2-1. The goal was Hatman's first of the season after he assisted on the opener.
SVSU carried the one-goal advantage into halftime before immediately putting pressure on the Wildcats after the break. Bernd Rathgeber (Nördlingen, Germany, BWG Neresheim Secondary School), Jo Bédard (Québec City, Canada, St. Andrew's School), Kouyate and Josh Izu (Lagos, Nigeria) each put shots on goal during the opening nine minutes of the second half, forcing four saves.
The Cardinals continued to protect the 2-1 advantage before Telfer provided some separation in the 81st minute.
After checking back into the match at the 80-minute mark, Telfer needed just 44 seconds to make an impact. Narcis Gavalda (Rossell, Spain, IES La Senia) set him up for the finish of his first goal, extending the SVSU lead to 3-1. Telfer added his second goal of the afternoon in the 89th minute with an assist from Izu to record his first brace of the year.
Telfer scored on both of his shot attempts to lead the Cardinal attack. He leads the team with four goals in their first four matches. Kouyate finished with a goal on three shots, while Hatman recorded a goal and an assist. Izu took three shots and added an assist.
Nick Kay (Walled Lake, Mich., Walled Lake Central HS) earned the victory in goal after making two saves key saves in the second half.
Head coach Louis Barrow had this to say on the team's performance in a three-goal win,
"I thought the boys played a really good game. I thought they just did what it took to get the win over the line. We were organized, we limited Northern Michigan to only a few chances, and we scored some pretty good goals as well. We asked the lads before the game to match and supersede the energy of Northern Michigan since that is what their X factor is. I felt like we brought an abundance of energy that started to drown them out, which gave us the upper leg for the first half. I think going into halftime a goal up, we learned from our mistakes that we made at Tiffin with letting a team back into the game, and we rectified that and got some great goals to ice the game at the end."
Up Next: Cardinal men's soccer has the week off before hosting Davenport for their first GLIAC match on Wednesday, September 16. Kickoff for the Cardinals and Panthers midweek match is set for 1 PM at Robert C. Braddock Field. Then, SVSU hosts Northern Michigan again for a GLIAC contest at 2 PM on Friday, September 18.
