The University of Wisconsin Superior scored five unanswered goals to roll past the University of Northwestern 5-1 in Wednesday's semifinal round of the Upper Midwest Athletic Conference postseason tournament, advancing to take on the College of St. Scholastica in a rematch of last year's UMAC Championship game.

UW-Superior (13-7-0) will get a third crack at the Saints after the two teams split a pair of meetings during the regular season, with the Yellowjackets knocking off CSS last time out in Duluth. St. Scholastica defeated UW-Superior 5-0 last year in the tournament finals.

Wednesday, the Yellowjackets and Eagles played even throughout much of the opening half. UWS was stuffed on a penalty kick attempt by Northwestern goalkeeper Turner Main to keep the game scoreless in the 40th minute. After a second yellow card was assessed to Northwestern's Nathan Olin on the prior play, the Eagles were forced to play a man down for the final 50 minutes of the match-up. Despite that, UNW broke through with the first score of the day when Eric Fast launched a free kick to the far upper corner out of reach of the Yellowjackets' keeper to put the road team up with just 1:14 left before halftime.

Main stuffed UWS a second time on a penalty kick in the 53rd minute, reaching out after a dive and punching the ball over the net. That set up a corner kick attempt for senior midfielder Gio Rodriguez (Rancho Cucamonga, Calif./Los Osos H.S.), and sophomore midfielder Danny Kearns (Greenock, Scotland/Clydeview Academy) broke through with the tying score by tapping in a bounding ball. Rodriguez would put the Yellowjackets on top for the first time in the 61st minute, burying a rebound off a shot by Kearns that rang off the goal post. Senior forward Ryan Wisdom (Hayward, Wis./Hayward) also earned an assist on the play.

UW-Superior was not done there, scoring a second time off a corner kick in the 69th minute as Eric Watson (Thunder Bay, Ont./Hammarskjold H.S.) headed in a ball off the foot of junior midfielder Reyman Solis (Kirkland, Ill./Huntley H.S.). The third time was the charm as another foul was called on Northwestern in the box and the Yellowjackets got their third penalty kick attempt of the game at the 71:00 mark. This time, junior forward Jon Bucklew (Somerset, Wis./Somerset H.S.) buried his 14th goal of the year on the chance. In the waning minutes of the game, sophomore forward Joao Moreira (Teresopolis, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil/Colegio Sao Paulo) netted the second goal of his season with an assist from sophomore midfielder Adrian Leal (Alicante, Spain/IES Cabo de la Huerta).

UWS finished with 27 shots including 16 on goal while holding Northwestern to seven shots and just a pair on net. Senior goalkeeper Ben Wilhelm (Stillwater, Minn./Stillwater Area H.S.) finished with one save for the Yellowjackets while Main had 11 stops for the Eagles.

UP NEXT
UW-Superior will take on the College of St. Scholastica on the road in the UMAC Championship game on Saturday afternoon with a trip to the NCAA III postseason on the line. Game time is yet to be announced.