The Lakeland University men's soccer team continued its hottest streak in 13 years and kept its hopes for a spot in the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference Tournament with a 2-0 win over Illinois Institute of Technology Saturday afternoon at Taylor Field.

Michecadet Gethand (So.-Jackson, Wis.) scored two more goals and the Muskies extended their unbeaten streak to five straight matches, including three straight wins. Lakeland also ensured that it will go into its final game of the regular season with a chance to play beyond that after improving to 6-6-2 overall and 5-5-1 in the NACC.

The Muskies are of the six-team NACC Tournament field looking in going into their finale at Concordia University Wisconsin on Wednesday, but their path to the tourney is simple. Lakeland needs to defeat Concordia and needs Aurora to lose or tie its match with Benedictine Wednesday night. The Muskies are currently three points behind CUW and one point behind Aurora in the conference standings, but a win would give Lakeland three points plus the tiebreaker over Concordia, meaning the Muskies just need to finish ahead of Aurora in points to qualify for the tourney.

Lakeland got the better of play much of the afternoon over Illinois Tech (6-11-1 overall, 2-8-1 NACC), frequently spending extended time in front of the Scarlet Hawks' goal. The Muskies posted a 20-11 advantage in shot attempts, including a big 15-5 margin in shots on goal, and also added 12 corner kicks.

Still, it took a fortunate bounce to score the first goal late in the first half, though it was an effort play that put Lakeland in position to benefit. IIT goalkeeper David Glazener received a pass back and was preparing to send a kick downfield when Gethand ran up to pressure him. Glazener ended up kicking the ball right into Gethand, and the ball rebounded backward into the air behind the keeper and right into the goal for the first score of the game at 32 minutes, 35 seconds of the match.

The score remained 1-0 well into the second half when the Muskies added a second goal. Ezra Johnson (Fr.-De Pere, Wis.) took away a free ball from an Illinois Tech defender, turned and quickly sent it up ahead on the right side to Gethand, who beat his defender and then the goalkeeper inside the right post for his 10th goal of the season, the most goals in a season by a Muskie since Jeremy Hardy scored 11 goals in 2011.

Lakeland had more chances, including a number of hard shots from close in from Michael Barragan (So.-Milwaukee, Wis.). Illinois Tech also generated several good opportunities in the second half, including back-to-back shots from point blank range early in the half, but Zach Heiman (So.-Racine, Wis.) made five saves for his third shutout of the season.

The Muskies also celebrated Senior Day with their last home game of the season, and the team's lone senior Aaron Smith (Lake Geneva, Wis.) was honored at halftime.