Oct. 11, 2002

Box Score

MILWAUKEE - Memo to all future University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee men's soccer team: the No. 17 Panthers are far more than just a one-man team. With Antou Jallow, the nation's leading scorer, battling a sore groin and three or four harassing defenders all night, UWM's B.J. Blake stepped up bigtime to lead Milwaukee to a 3-1 win over the University of Akron here Friday (Oct. 11). Blake scored two goals and assisted on the third as UWM won its eighth straight match to improve to 8-1-1 on the season. Meanwhile, with the loss, the Zips fell to 2-6-2 on the year.

"B.J. played great tonight," UWM head coach Louis Bennett said. "Really, he has been playing well all year. He is definitely starting to find his niche. Kyle Lance and Bobby Lish are also playing well up top and are helping to create chances."

Blake and the Panthers controlled the game throughout the first half as Milwaukee outshot the visitors nine to two in the first 45 minutes. The junior proved proficient in the first stanza, hammering home his only two shots to give UWM a 2-0 halftime lead. Blake gave the Panthers a 1-0 edge at the 15:49 mark when he headed home a crossing pass from sophomore Trent Furtsch. The Wheaton, Ill.-native struck again just seven minutes later when he headed home a rebound that bounded off the crossbar. Blake now has four goals on the season, second only to Jallow's 13 markers.

Akron came out aggressively in the early going of the second stanza and appeared to catch UWM on its heels. The Zips fired numerous shots on UWM keeper Chris Dadaian and were finally able to dent the scoreboard at the 48:15 mark when Michael Marich tapped home a five-yard shot off a Hans Jorge Haugland corner kick. UA misfired on a few more chances in the early portions of the stanza before Milwaukee retook control of the game in the last 20 minutes.

With both teams playing aggressive, attacking soccer, UWM regained its two goal lead in the 74th minute of play. Once again Blake wreaked havoc on the Akron defense, this time assisting on Neil Dombrowski's third goal of the season. Blake stole the ball from Akron goalie Dan Pinho and then centered a perfect pass to the streaking Dombrowski who headed the ball into the back of the net.

"Playing Akron is always difficult and they are one of the more competitive teams in Division I soccer," Bennett added. "They have played an unbelievable schedule and just missed versus a lot of ranked teams. For us to do what we just did to that team is exciting. It's a nice win for our program."

UWM will look to run it's winning streak to nine games when Wright State University comes to town on Sunday (Oct. 13). The Horizon League match is set to begin at 2:00 p.m. as the tail-end of a women's and men's doubleheader.