ASHLAND, Wis. – The Yellowjacket men's soccer team opened the season in late March with a 5-1 win on the road at Northland. Saturday night, it closed the regular season on the road at Northland. In between those games, the Yellowjackets ran the table in the Upper Midwest Athletic Conference and were named the 2021 UMAC Champions.
 
The Yellowjackets came into the game having already sewn up their third straight regular season championship and the top seed in the UMAC tournament, so the only thing left was the perfect record against conference opponents.
 
It was a tough contest on a beautiful night in Ashland, but the Yellowjackets got the job done, taking down the Lumberjacks with a 3-0 win at Ponzio Stadium.
 
With the win, the Yellowjackets (9-1, 8-0 UMAC) will have home-field advantage throughout the UMAC tournament. And, after Saturday's results, the Yellowjackets will take on a familiar foe in the playoff opener. The Yellowjackets will play host to Northland, the third meeting of the season between the two clubs, in the UMAC semifinals.
 
The Yellowjackets got the eventual game-winning goal in the 30th minute when Pontus Tavemark (Taeby, Sweden/Taeby Enskilden Gymnasium) scored his second of the year to make it 1-0. Team scoring leader Blake Perry (Anoka, Minn./Anoka) assisted on the goal.

That would be all the scoring in the opening half, a half that saw the Yellowjackets own an 8-3 edge in shots attempted, and a 5-2 advantage in shots on goal.
 
Early in the second half the Yellowjackets gave themselves some breathing room, getting a goal from an unlikely source. Dylan Hanegraaf (Rose Creek, Minn./Austin), who wears No. 16, became the 16th different Yellowjacket to score a goal this season when he found the back of the net at 58:41 to make it 2-0.

The Yellowjackets closed out the scoring with 4:47 to play in the match when Nicolai Stokker (Klokkarstua, Norway/St. Hallvard) got the ball at the top of the box and sent a right-footer into the lower left corner for his fourth goal of the season. Stokker's unassisted goal made the final score 3-0.
 
For the match, the Yellowjackets attempted 17 shots and had 10 shots on goal, compared to five shots attempted and four shots on goal for Northland. Blake Doyea (Ramsey, Minn./Anoka) led the Yellowjackets with three shots attempted, and no Yellowjacket had more than one shot on goal.
 
Ulrik Lager (Vollen, Norway/Asker VGS) got the start in goal for the Yellowjackets and finished the match with four saves, earning his fifth shutout of the season. His record on the year now stands at a stellar 8-1-0.
 
The Yellowjackets and the Lumberjacks will open the 2021 UMAC playoffs at the NBC Spartan Sports Complex Wednesday, May 5. The start time will be determined at a later date.