Nov. 17, 2002

Box Score

MILWAUKEE - The Horizon League sweep is now complete for the No. 8 University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee men's soccer team thanks to an 8-0 defeat of Cleveland State in the championship game of the league tournament here Sunday (Nov. 17). UWM claimed its first ever Horizon League Tournament title after sweeping through the loop regular season with a 7-0 mark. The Panthers, 18-1-1 on the year, won their school-record and NCAA-best 18th game in a row while earning the league's automatic berth into the NCAA Tournament. The NCAA appearance will be the fifth in UWM history and second in succession.

"This is just absolutely fantastic," UWM head coach Louis Bennett said. "We set goals to win the Horizon League regular season and tournament and we did just that. We are the first team in school history to win both and I'm so proud of these guys."

Just like the first meeting between the two schools, a 7-0 UWM victory, Cleveland State fell behind in the first half and couldn't stop the Panther offensive onslaught. All told, Milwaukee fired 28 overall shots, 20 shots on goal, and collected 12 corner kicks while registering the eight goals, the most since a 9-0 win over Bradley on Sept. 23, 1990. 18 different Panthers played on the afternoon with all but three field players registering at least one shot on goal.

Chad Dombrowski startd the Panther scoring with the first of what would be a Dombrowski hat trick on the afternoon. The senior scored the eventual game-inning goal off a corner kick from B.J. Blake and a header from his brother, Tighe Dombrowski. Tighe quickly made it 2-0 less than three minutes later when he beat five CSU defenders before rifling home a 16-yard blast at the 26:32 mark.

The Panthers quickly turned things into a rout early in the second half, scoring three more goals in the first 20 minutes of the frame. Antou Jallow tacked on to his own single season school record with his 23rd goal at the 53:11 mark before B.J. Blake scored in the 57th and 65th minutes to make it 5-0 UWM. Cliff Ellsworth assisted on the Jallow goal while Blake's goals were set up by Tighe Dombrowski and Trent Furtsch, respectively.

UWM head coach Louis Bennett cleared his bench late in the contest but it didn't slow down the Panther attack. Neil Dombrowski joined brothers Chad and Tighe in the scoring column when he volleyed home a shot in the 72nd minute. Neil Dombrowski then assisted on Milwaukee's seventh goal of the game when he tapped a pass to senior Kevin Roethe in the 79th minute. Junior Bobby Lish, who notched five assists in the first meeting with CSU, rounded out the scoring when he chipped a shot in from eight yards out with 84:08 remaining on the clock.

Seniors Chris Dadaian and Brad Swenby combined for UWM's 11th shutout of the season, combining to stop eight Viking shots. Dadaian, who earned his 15th victory of the season to improve to 15-0-0 on the year, set the school record for career wins with 41 while the 15 wins ties the UWM single-season mark.

"We slowly and surely dismantled a good Cleveland State team today," Bennett added. "We used every healthy body we had and continued to look good. No matter what player is in the game, they all buy into the system and they can attack with both style and creativity."

Milwaukee will now await the NCAA selections, which will be announced Monday (Nov. 18) at 3:30 p.m.. The announcement, which will be aired live on ESPNNEWS, will be viewed by the UWM team and staff at the Gasthaus in the basement of the UWM Student Union beginning at 3:00 p.m.