Michigan Tech’s Neve Badalow tries to keep the ball away from a Northern Michigan forward during a game Friday at Kearly Stadium in Houghton. (David Archambeau/For the Gazette)

HOUGHTON — The Michigan Tech Soccer team wrapped up their regular season at home on Friday with a tough 1-0 loss to the Northern Michigan Wildcats.

It was the second time these two rivals had played this season. In late September, they tied 0-0 in Marquette.

Friday’s matchup was very much the tale of two halves with the Huskies dominating the first and the Wildcats controlling the second.

“The first was totally ours,” said Huskies coach Bulut Ozturk. “The performance by us was absolutely excellent in the first half. Opportunities were great with a shot hitting the cross bar and others going just wide.”

Michigan Tech (7-8-3, 5-6-3 GLIAC) came out with their guns loaded firing six shots in just over 20 minutes of play. The ball stayed in the Wildcats’ (11-2-5, 8-2-4 GLIAC ) end of the field around the goal box for much of that time.

Near the 15-miniute mark, Tech’s Alyiva Sanoma came very close to a goal with a shot that hit the crossbar. A few minutes later, teammate Julia Pietala fired one on net only to hit a post.

While the Huskies outshot their opponent 8-4 in the first half, the Wildcats captured the one shot that counted. It came at the 29-minute mark as Ashley Koch drove in on goal kicked put one on net that deflected off a Huskies defender and onto the foot of Hannah Kastamo who put it past Huskies goalkeeper Gracie VanLangevelde.

The Wildcats held the 1-0 lead at the midway point.

“I told the women to just keep it up at half,” said Ozturk. “We should have been up 2-1, and I said the goals will come if we keep the pressure on.”

The play, however, did not go as planned. While the Wildcats outshot the Huskies just 3-1 in the second half, they controlled the field by far.

“In the second half, they dominated,” said Ozturk. “You could see fatigue set in with us, and we didn’t press as well as we did in that first half.”

However, the second-year coach added that there were plenty of timely positives that came out of Friday’s loss.

“The way we played and performed was strong, and we take that going into the playoffs now,” Ozturk said.

Up next

Michigan Tech will travel to Ferris State on Tuesday and face Ferris State in the first round of the GLIAC tournament. They have lost twice to Ferris in the regular season. The game is set to start at 1 p.m.