April Schauers
HOUGHTON, Mich. - Brooke Schauer scored the winning goal 61 minutes in and the Huskies polished off a 2-1 victory over Northwood in GLIAC soccer Friday night at Kearly Stadium. Jesse Jacobusse also scored for Michigan Tech in the first half to help MTU improve to 3-2-1 this spring. Northwood fell to 2-2-1 with Lauren Way scoring the only goal for the Timberwolves.
"It was a tough win against a challenging opponent today," said head coach Bulut Ozturk. "We went down 1-0 and then showed alot of fight to come back so this one means alot to me and our team. We know that we can be put under pressure and face difficult situations and still believe we can dig ourselves out. Jesse has learned to be very composed in the final third and she has become very dangerous for us. Also, what a goal by Brooke. We started to see how dominant she was becoming in the first half and then she was rewarded for that effort in the second half."
The Huskies started out with a trio of near misses in the early portion of the first half, capped by Schauer's interception of a clearing attempt. She then fired a shot off the crossbar from the top of the box. However, Way found the back of the net first for NU with a 20 yard strike over Tech goalkeeper Erika Gabriel in the 41st minute. Jessica Piper added an assist. Jacobusse tied it up just 53 seconds before halftime with her team-leading fifth tally of the season. Cassie Bonifas crossed in a long pass from the sideline and Jacobusse headed it home from seven yards out to the bottom left corner of the frame.
Schauer added what would end up being the game winning marker in the 62nd minute with an acrobatic diving header in the middle of the box off a long cross from Mackenzie Scholz through traffic. Stephanie Yeager added the second assist and the Huskies held off the Timberwolves the remainder of the game.
Schauer led the Huskies with four shot attempts and Grace Shaw was also a big contributor to multiple scoring chances for MTU.
"We knew Northwood wasn't going to make it easy for us after we scored that second goal so we just tried to continue to press forward all the way to the end," commented Shaw. "It was a great win for us."
The Huskies attempted 18 shots with seven landing on goal. Northwood finished with nine shot attempts and a pair on net. Erika Gabriel made two saves to grab the win while Bridget Adams made five of seven saves for NU, suffering the loss. Michigan Tech earned three corners and held Northwood without a corner through 90 minutes. The Huskies have three regular season games remaining and hosts Ferris State next on Sunday at 12 p.m. EST. MTU also moved up to No. 4 in the GLIAC standings Friday.
