EVANSTON — Freshman Soony Saad left little time to celebrate his record-breaking 15th goal of the season and a 4-2 triumph over Northwestern on Saturday. Neither did the rest of the Michigan men's soccer team, as all attention turned to the Big Ten Tournament opener against Michigan State in State College on Thursday.

“I never really put it in my head that I have to break the record,” Soony said. “It was in the back of my mind, but it wasn't the main force driving me today.”

Soony's strike came from eight yards out off the assist from senior forward Justin Meram. The toe poke extended the Wolverines' lead and rewrote the record books for a young man who has so far shown enormous potential as a Michigan soccer player.

It's no secret that the grind of the Big Ten schedule is most difficult on the road. But life was made a bit easier for the program on this trip because of the presence of the Michigan Ultras. The active soccer cheering section made the 256-mile trip to Lakeside Field, which, as its name would suggest, sits on the banks of Lake Michigan.

"(The Ultras) really helped to turn this into more of a home game for us,” Michigan head coach Steve Burns said. “They're getting their energy dialed in and it makes a huge difference.”

Despite falling behind in the game's early stages, Michigan (4-2-0 Big Ten, 11-4-3 overall) roared back with a goal of its own, going into halftime deadlocked with the Wildcats (2-3-1, 8-7-2). The first half had no shortage of kicks, trips and close calls.

“It got chippy and there were controversial calls and ... we didn't fall into it,” Burns said. “We maintained our cool and played through it.”

Wildcats assistant coach Neil Jones was ejected from the field of play, apparently for arguing against what he believed was a crucial no-call that led to sophomore midfielder Hamoody Saad's equalizer for the Wolverines.

Officials were reaching for their pockets left and right as there was a total of eight yellow cards — five of these cautions were given to Northwestern.

“You have the classy players on the field and you have the dirty ones,” Soony said. “You try to look past the little kicks in the ankles and trash-talking. You just shut them up by putting a couple in the back of the net and winning the game.”

In the second half, the physical nature of the game continued. But Michigan scored three consecutive goals to build positive momentum going into this weekend's Big Ten Tournament at Penn State.

The Wolverines secured the three seed in the upcoming tournament with the win, an objective that the team had set early on in conference play. Michigan will prepare this week for its quarterfinal opponent, Michigan State. The two teams met during the regular season with the Wolverines prevailing 3-2 in overtime.

“We definitely showed (in Big Ten play) that we can compete with most of the teams and go far in the tournament,” Soony said. “We're pretty confident.”