Nov. 17, 2001

MILWAUKEE - Second-seeded Butler upset the first-seeded UWM men's soccer team, 2-0, in the Horizon League Championship Saturday afternoon at Engelmann Field. The No. 15 Panthers (18-5) will have to wait to see if they get an at-large bid into the NCAA Tournament while Butler (10-8) automatically advances with the league tournament title.

Milwaukee looked convincing in its attack, pounding Butler with 23 shots--including 13 on goal--and also taking 18 corner kicks. But the story of the day was Bulldogs goalkeeper Grant Barrie, who recorded 13 saves. He came up with unbelievable saves to stop many great UWM chances on goal, and took home All-Tournament Team MVP honors with a clean slate on the weekend.

"It's hard to swallow, but soccer is sometimes like that. It wouldn't have been strange for us to win 5-2," UWM coach Louis Bennett said. "We had some very good chances, but their goalkeeper had one of those games. He played exceptionally well and he then created his own luck. We couldn't break it."

Down 2-0 since the 22nd minute, the Panthers not only hit the post, but had several shots cleared off the line. Milwaukee had multiple threats in the first half, including a Kyle Lance free kick that bounced off the post and into the hands of Barrie. Barrie also made a diving save to stop Ryan Seymour's header on goal. The second half saw even more Panther action in the attack. Chad Dombrowski, who moved from right defense to the attacking midfield, had a shot in traffic that was cleared off the line and Khaled El-Ahmad's 40-yard volley was tipped over by Barrie.

"We knew the chances would come, but once we got down, it became harder to get them in," junior captain Chad Dombrowski said. "Their goalkeeper played awesome. There's not much you can do about that."

Butler got on the board early with a Nick Pantazi goal scored in the seventh minute off an assist from Chance. Pantazi took a pass from teammate Chance Ernst and dribbled into the box with a UWM defender on his side. Pantazi shot low to beat junior goalkeeper Brad Swenby on the far post. Michael Mariscalco headed in a corner kick from Brendan Connor to take the 2-0 lead at the 21:44 minute mark. The Bulldogs finished with nine shots on the game, including six on goal., while Swenby posted four saves.

"I'm not displeased with the team, "Bennett said. "We executed the game plan, but we didn't take care of the two details in the box. Between the boxes, we played exceptionally well. We just didn't take care of it in the box. But any team that comes to Engelmann and stops us from scoring has done well."

Named to the Horizon League All-Tournament team from UWM were Tighe Dombrowski, Ryan Seymour, B.J. Blake and Trent Furtsch. Also representing Butler with Barrie were Brendan Conner, Michael Mariscalco, Nick Pantazi and Andrew Pancio. UIC's Jay Demerit and Wright State's Bret Jones also were named to the team.

The Panthers now must wait to see if they will qualify into the NCAA Tournament with an at-large bid. The pairings for the tournament will be broadcast live Monday at 2 p.m. on Fox Sports Net. UWM is ranked 15th in the nation in the NSCAA poll, but is ranked as low as 12th in the collegesoccernews.com poll. Milwaukee is tied with No. 1 SMU for most wins in the nation.

"I don't want to tempt fate, but I'd like to think it would be harsh to keep out a team with our record, having only one loss at home and three on the road," Bennett said of his team's chances of getting a bid. "If we do go, it's a great opportunity for the Horizon League to have two teams represent."