ALPENA — Coming off an exceptional upset win against Traverse City West earlier in the season, Petoskey had all of the momentum going into Thursday night’s game against Alpena.

The Northmen got off to a quick start, scoring five goals in just the first half while holding Alpena to zero shots on goal the entire game.

Ultimately, the Wildcats took a 6-0 loss, falling to 1-5-1 on the season.

“We were very unorganized during the first half, and it led to a lot of confusion. In the second half, we started cleaning some things up and played a much better game. Keeping possession and switching the point of attack were a couple of other things I was pleased with as the game went on,” Alpena coach Gregg Supiran said.

From the jump, the Northmen controlled the possession of the game and put pressure on Alpena’s net.

Just three minutes into the game, Petoskey had the perfect scoring opportunity but just missed left, kicking the ball out of bounds.

Two minutes later, the same outcome repeated after another shot on goal.

The third time was the charm, as with 33:52 left in the game, Mason McLintock shot the ball straight through the net to get the Northmen on the board.

Just four minutes later, with 29:12 remaining, the Wildcats made a costly mistake.

A penalty kick was awarded to Petoskey, who took full advantage of it. Thomas Farley shot it right into the hands of the outstretched Michael Herrmann, but the ball ricocheted into the net for the 2-0 lead.

The momentum continued to stay in the hands of Petoskey, and Farley capitalized once again.

Farley dribbled the ball right through all of Alpena’s defenders and made the Wildcats pay for it.

At 28:35 in the first half, Farley knocked in his second goal of the game to extend the lead to 3-0.

The Northmen continued to pour it on just another ten minutes later, scoring their fourth goal.

Ezra Franseth was credited with the score this time, and Petoskey was not done there.

Brady Odenbach scored the Northmen’s fifth and final goal of the first half, leaving Alpena with no answer, entering halftime down five goals.

Despite Alpena’s multitude of mistakes committed in the first half, the second half went much smoother.

The Wildcats were able to defend against many Petoskey attacks and were much better at communicating the rest of the game.

Although the defense took a considerable step up, the offense was still stagnant, with very few offensive possessions.

The Northmen were able to sneak one final goal in with nine minutes left in the game before the clock finally struck zero.

“We have to play like we did in the second half to even stand a chance against anyone we play. If we come out and play like we did in the first half, it is going to be impossible to hang with a team like Gaylord,” Supiran said. “We need to take every opponent from here on out very seriously because we know we can play better than we did tonight.”

Alpena takes on Gaylord next Tuesday.