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After dropping their first six games of the 2016 season, the UW-Superior men’s soccer team needed a spark to reverse their fortunes.

Head Coach Joe Mooney and his coaching staff decided to alter the team’s formation, adding an extra midfielder to the attack in order to jump-start a UW-Superior offense that scored just three goals in the season’s opening two weeks.

To say the switch worked would be a vast understatement.

Since the change, the Yellowjackets have netted 47 goals over their past 12 games. And with postseason play right around the corner, UW-Superior appears to be in fine form with the Upper Midwest Athletic Conference Tournament beginning next week.

The Yellowjackets continued their run of success Tuesday, closing out their regular season home slate with a 6-1 victory over Finlandia on the Ifan Sports Network.

With the victory, UW-Superior has now won six straight and 11 of their last 12. Included in that run has been a 9-0 shut-out of Northland, a 6-0 victory over Bethany Lutheran and impressive non-conference wins against Augsburg, St. John’s and border rivals St. Scholastica.

No player has factored more into the Yellowjackets’ success than junior forward Jon Bucklew, who has been on a tear over the past week.

After pouring in four goals against Northland, the Somerset, Wis. native added a goal and an assist in the Yellowjackets 2-0 win over St. Scholastica Sunday. He followed that up with three more tallies against the Lions, giving him 13 goals and five assists for 2016.

Bucklew got things started early against Finlandia, scoring his 11th goal of the year on an assist from Ryan Linsmayer just 2:03 into the opening half.

Hugo Roos gave UW-Superior a 2-0 lead 3:16 later, netting his second tally of the campaign from Jonah Garcia before Bucklew tipped home Ryan Wisdom’s bending cross at 24:25 for a 3-0 Yellowjackets cushion.

Reyman Solis’ fourth goal of the year at 34:05 made it a 4-0 contest.

Finlandia’s Alex Freeman scored his sixth goal of the season at 39:36 for a 4-1 Yellowjackets’ cushion heading into the intermission.

From there, UW-Superior got additional tallies from Bucklew at 86:55 and Danny Kearns at 89:45 to close out the 6-1 win.

The Yellowjackets held a 31-4 edge in shot attempts, including a 12-2 margin in shots on goal. Senior Ben Wilhelm picked up the win in goal, stopping one shot before being relieved by Josh Herd with just over 10 minutes remaining in regulation.

Ricardo Almanza took the loss for Finlandia with six stops.

Now sitting at 11-7 overall and 6-1 in conference play, the Yellowjackets close out the regular season Saturday with their final UMAC regular season game against North Central in Minneapolis.

Finlandia closes out their campaign at 7-10.

UW-Superior will return home Wednesday, Oct. 2 to host the UMAC Tournament Semifinal round at the Yellowjacket Soccer Complex. Game time and opponent will be determined in coming days. Check either ifan.tv or uwsyellowjackets.com for more information.