News Photo by James Andersen Alpena’s Kyle Barbeau, left, sprints away from the net after scoring on Petoskey keeper Michael Iverson, middle, during the first half of a boys soccer game on Tuesday at Park Family Field at Wildcat Stadium.

When the Alpena High boys soccer team got an early punch in the mouth on Tuesday, Grant Botha was there to deliver multiple knockout blows.

The junior midfielder scored a hat trick and helped the Wildcats earn a key 5-2 Big North Conference victory over Petoskey at Park Family Field at Wildcat Stadium in their regular season home finale.

Petoskey scored the game’s first goal and the last goal, but in between Alpena (14-2-1, 4-2 BNC) scored five goals.

Alpena got an extra shot in the arm Tuesday as Gaylord lost to Traverse City Central 2-0, moving the Wildcats into a tie for second place with the Blue Devils as both teams have 12 points.

“It’s kind of odd to say we gave up the first goal and the last goal and scored five in between. I guess I’d like it to be a little cleaner, especially finishing,” Alpena coach Tim Storch said. “(After the first goal), that’s where guys have to step up and show they can play in key moments like that. I’m actually very proud of the fact that we came from behind (because) we haven’t been behind all year in a game that we’ve won.”

Botha scored once in the first half and added two more in the second half. With 26:02 left in the game, Petoskey keeper Michael Iverson leapt and got a hand on a shot by Kolton Goebel and Botha was there to bang in the rebound.

He completed his hat trick, putting a shot past Iverson after a cross from Ivo Arvidsson-Ullberg.

Since returning to the lineup last Thursday after missing two weeks with an injury, Botha has found the back of the net seven times.

“In the system we want to play, he’s a very key component. You can see that we had a big hole without him against Traverse City West and a lot of those other games he was out,” Storch said. “(His ability) shows when he’s there because he means so much to our team and makes everyone around him more dangerous.”

Arvidsson-Ullberg and Kyle Barbeau added single tallies for the Wildcats, who outshot the Northmen 8-3 for the night and led 3-1 at halftime.

The Northmen, who entered the game in fourth place in the Big North standings got the jump on Alpena early when Dylan Aldridge scored with 34:18 left in the first half.

The goal held up for a while as the Wildcats struggled to put pressure on Iverson. When they finally did though, they made it count. Barbeau knotted the game 1-1 with 17:42 left in the half when he got a step on Iverson, beating him in a race for the ball to put it in the back of the net.

Arvidsson-Ullberg put Alpena ahead for good when he buried a penalty kick with 11:18 left in the half.

To his credit, Iverson made several big stops for the Northmen throughout the first half. He got a step on Mike Clark with 7:04 left to take away a scoring chance and made a sprawling save on a shot from Craig Tagliareni with 3:38 left.

But Alpena found the mark again with 1:46 left when Botha scored after Iverson had trouble clearing the ball.

“”We got punched in the mouth and we responded by getting the equalizer and two more before half,” Storch said.

Matt Muller scored for Petoskey with 2:39 left in the game.

The Wildcats will hit the road for their next four games in an attempt to make a run at the conference title. Alpena plays at Gaylord on Friday and will look to gain a measure of revenge after the Blue Devils won 2-0 earlier this month.