COEUR d'ALENE - The North Idaho College men's soccer team connected on four goals on six shots on goal in a 4-0 win in Saturday's match against the visiting Community Colleges of Spokane at Eisenwinter Field, clinching a postseason berth for the Cardinals.

"We definitely had some good finishing at the net today," NIC coach Ken Thompson said. "When you put your chances away, and finish the way that we did today, you're going to be tough to beat."

NIC had to be .500 or above by Oct. 20, and needed at least a tie one of its final four games to qualify for the Region 9 tournament.

"The last two years, it's gone down to the last few games," Thompson said. "It feels good to qualify early and to see that 10 days ago, we lost at Spokane and the guys put the work in and were really patient with the ball. I feel like our guys are starting to get healthy again. We've been through some rocky stuff, but we're starting to play our best soccer of the year."

NIC opened a 3-0 lead at halftime on goals from John Ray, Rodger Bucknor and Jesse Bostrom. Adam Talley capped the scoring in the 72nd minute for NIC (8-4-2), which hosts Dakota County, ranked 15th in this week's NJCAA poll, on Friday at 4 p.m.

First half - 1, NIC, John Ray (Adam Talley), 14:00. 2, NIC, Rodger Bucknor (Dawes Elwood), 32:00. 3, NIC, Jesse Bostram (Will Mecier), 36:00. Second half - 4, NIC, Talley (Christian Botuli), 72:00.

Shots on goal - CCS 8, NIC 6.

Saves - CCS, Bridger Peres 2; NIC, Tanner Jones 7.