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Marcos Gallardo Rozano
Freshman defender Marcos Gallardo Rozano (Madrid, Spain)

Men's Soccer Braden Golisek - Assistant Director of Sports Information

PREVIEW: Critical Weekend on Tap for Men's Soccer

Wildcats take on Midwest region power-house programs in Lake Erie and Saginaw Valley

MARQUETTE, Mich. -- The NMU men's soccer team is geared up for a critical weekend of play, hosting the Lake Erie Storm before a non-conference matchup with national and conference powerhouse, the #6 Saginaw Valley State Cardinals.

Coming off a split weekend where the 'Cats had a dominant showing against Northwood in the season opener and lost a close battle to the #25 nationally ranked and #5 regionally ranked Tiffin Dragons, the Green and Gold now transition to an even more challenging weekend with another pair of regionally and nationally successful programs.

The 'Cats are set to host Lake Erie on Thursday, September 3, at 3 p.m. ET at the NMU Soccer Field in Marquette, Michigan, marking the first home game for the 'Cats of the 2026 season.

The team then hits the road for a rare non-conference match against GLIAC powerhouse Saginaw Valley State on Sunday, September 6, at 12 p.m. ET in University Center, Michigan.

Fans can watch both games on FloCollege, follow along with live stats provided through nmuwildcats.com, and subscribe to the official NMU Men's Soccer social media accounts for continued coverage throughout the weekend.

Entering the weekend clashes, the Storm are the #9 ranked team in the Midwest Region, and the Cardinals are the #6 ranked team nationally and #1 ranked program in the Midwest Region.

Head coach Fatovic acknowledged this is a tough stretch for his group, then added that these tough, early-season regional competitions are about testing themselves.

"With a lot of young players that we have, you have to recognize that when you're in a game with two good teams, the difference is one team takes their chances, and the other team doesn't. It doesn't come down to like style of play or all the things that we've been talking about. It's about who wants to win the game. And I think that's what our guys needed to figure out, and now they did, so hopefully that takes us into the next one because it doesn't get any easier Thursday with Lake Erie."

The Lake Erie College Storm entered the 2026 campaign selected to finish fifth in the G-MAC Preseason Coaches Poll, with key returners in G-MAC Second Team selection defender Luka Bekovic and senior goalkeeper David Ruiz Ospina. Head coach Louie Rolko, who is in his 10th season as head coach, said that "this has been one of my favorite groups to work with, and we return almost our entire team from last year" when speaking with lakeeriestorm.com in the preseason preview.

The Storm have enjoyed a good start to the 2026 campaign: a 2-0 win over Gannon on the road, who made a run to the NCAA Elite Eight last season, and a tight 0-1 loss to UIndy, who made it to the second round of the NCAA Tournament last season.

The Storm had a down season last year, but are not far removed from the team that made a G-MAC Tournament Championship and NCAA Final Four appearance a few seasons ago.

"Hopefully [we] take the lessons learned from the Tiffin game that you have to be good for the whole 90 minutes. There are no breaks in this region for sure.... Lake Erie will be in a different shape than Saginaw, and they're going to pose a different style of play than Saginaw, so you might see some different things in the two games between our personnel and their's. We're fully focused on Lake Erie for Thursday... We'll worry about the rematch on Sunday with Saginaw, it's going to be a great game, but Thursday is going to pose a big challenge because this is a very good program that had a down year last year, so you know that there's a little bit extra bite in their play and a chip on their shoulder to return to their form."

The Wildcats then hit the road for a rematch of the 2025 GLIAC Tournament Championship game, traveling to University Center, Michigan, to take on the Saginaw Valley State Cardinals, who enter the weekend as the #1 team in the region and #6 team in the country.

The Cardinals topped the 2026 GLIAC Preseason Coaches Poll with 36 points, six ahead of Roosevelt at 30, and garnered every possible first-place vote in the conference. The Cardinals have been the powerhouse program of the GLIAC in recent memory, capturing six regular season titles and two tournament championships in the past 10 seasons.

The Cardinals are coming off an 11-3-4 record and a GLIAC regular season title in 2025, and an impressive 2024 that saw an NCAA Tournament quarterfinals appearance, a GLIAC regular season championship, and a GLIAC Tournament championship.

"We kind of know what to expect on Sunday. We know how they're going to play; they're good at what they do, and I don't anticipate them changing... We're looking at two very good games."

Getting results is crucial week in and week out, but when zooming out and assessing the season as a whole, head coach Fatovic doubles down that scheduling matches against top competition in the region not only makes his team better, but being able to find results this early in the campaign will benefit the team's chances for NCAA Tournament opportunities come selection time in November.

"There are two tracks: One, it does great for our development and learning how to play against high-level competition every week. We need that. And two, it could do a lot for our national tournament bid if we get some results. If we don't, then it doesn't do anything for us except put us in a tough spot to try to win the tournament.

"These are massive games for NPI standings later in the season. If we can go out and get two wins this weekend, it'd probably be one of the biggest weekends in our program history. If we can get four points, I think it's a really successful weekend. I think if we split, it's a good weekend again. Anytime you can split in our region, I think you've had a good weekend. It's going to be tough, and we're excited to see what our guys can do in response to Sunday's loss." 

The men's soccer team only has two home games in September: tomorrow's clash against Lake Erie, and the non-conference finale against the University of Jamestown on Saturday, September 12, before four straight road games of GLIAC competition to open the conference calendar.

The first handful of fans to the NMU Soccer Field will be given vuvuzelas to cheer on the home team, as head coach Fatovic says that support from the local community goes a long way for his squad in helping the team get the crucial results needed.

"[I would] love to get the community out on Thursday. Marquette County schools haven't started yet, so the 3 p.m. time should work for all the families looking for one last summer activity. The weather looks great, and if we could pack the house on Thursday for [our] guys, I think we'll see a really good game."




 
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