Nov. 3, 2001

MILWAUKEE-The UWM men's soccer team recharged from an early two-goal deficit to dominate and beat the University of Illinois-Chicago, 3-2, Saturday afternoon at Engelmann Field. The Panthers (16-3, 7-0 Horizon League) ended the regular season undefeated in the league and at home.

"We're allowed to be a more exciting and difficult team to beat at home," UWM coach Louis Bennet said of his team that ended the season 8-0 at Engelmann Field. "On the road, we're hard to beat but sometimes it's not as exciting. But at home, the players feel inspired in the sense of commitment to be exciting."

Down 2-0 since the 12th minute, Milwaukee woke up from its tentative start and began to switch gears after the first 30 minutes. Freshman defender Ian Hoelker capitalized on the momentum when he scored in the 42nd minute off an assist from Kyle Lance. Lance sent in a low free kick close from the end line and Hoelker put it in from 12 yards out in traffic to trail, 2-1, at the half.

"We were neither an exciting team to watch or a difficult team to beat for most of the first half," Bennett said. "And UIC was good enough to put two goals in on us. But then we immediately started to play true to our slogan, and created chance after chance."

The second half proved most valuable to the 786 fans in attendance, as Milwaukee demonstrated its exciting attack to dominate UIC. Senior forward Ryan Seymour led UWM in the second half with a goal and an assist, and now has 39 points on the season.

Seymour scored his 15th goal of the season in the 61st minute off a double assist from Chad Dombrowski and Kevin Roethe. The play began when Dombrowski battled a UIC defender for the ball and quickly crossed it into the box. Roethe touched it while Seymour finished it from eight yards out, giving UWM the equalizer at two a piece.

The gamewinner came in the 65th minute when senior forward Marc Pehowski executed a brilliant flick-on from Seymour. Seymour flicked on a cross from Evan Richardson with his head, and Pewhowski ran through the open space to finish past UIC goalkeeper Jeff Kusiciel from close range.

The Panthers kept the Flames back on their heels for the remainder of the game. UWM produced 16 shots while holding UIC to three in the second half. Milwaukee outshot UIC, 23-8, overall, including 13-5 on shots on goal. UWM pressed UIC for nine corner kicks in the second half, recording the 13-2 advantage.

"I was elated when we won the regular season last week, but there was always a risk of the anti-climax," Bennett said. "For a small part of the first half, we were out there filling our jerseys rather than filling our roles and responsibilities of playing as a Top 25 team. At halftime, the simple adjustments we made were to take responsibility for each and every individual role. The biggest responsibility was to defend properly and when we did that, it gave us a lot of the ball. Having the ball a lot allowed us to go forward and create a lot of quality soccer."

The Flames got on the board early in the game when Bruno Rasich converted a penalty kick at the 1:47 minute mark. Rasich then set up the Flames second goal at 11:02 when he sent in a corner kick, allowing defender Jay DeMerit to get to the trickling ball through traffic and score.

UWM goalkeeper Chris Dadaian recorded three saves in the game, while Kusiciel was forced to make 10 saves for UIC.

The win gives UWM a perfect record at home and the school record in season winning-percentage. The previous record of .929 was from 1993, when UWM went 6-0-1 at home. Already having clinched the Horizon League regular-season championship last week, UWM ended the season undefeated in the league for the first time since 1993. That year, the Panthers went 8-0 in the Mid-Continent Conference.

The Panthers will host Cleveland State in a quarterfinal game of the Horizon League Tournament on Sat., Nov. 10, at 12 p.m. The top four seeds in the league host the quarterfinal, and the top remaining seed will then host the tournament semifinals and championship. As the top seed, UWM would host the remainder of the tournament with a win over Cleveland State next weekend. The semifinals are scheduled for Fri., Nov. 16, while the championship will be on Sat., Nov. 17.