Sept. 2, 2002

Box Score

DALLAS - After a season-opening hiccup on Friday night, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee men's soccer team appears to be back on track as the visiting Panthers played the country's No. 8 team, Southern Methodist University, to a 1-1 double overtime draw Monday (Sept. 2). With the tie, UWM is now 0-1-1 on the season, while the Mustangs move to 1-0-1.

In a match of two teams with differing styles, physical play ruled the night as 29 fouls were called on each team with UWM drawing four yellow cards to SMU's three. In addition to the rough play, UWM faced one of the nation's top teams on their home turf in oppressive 90-plus degree heat.

"This is a very difficult place to play," UWM head coach Louis Bennett said. "They were the No. 1 team in the country for much of the season last year, and they are very talented. It was a very hot night and a physical game. SMU plays a different style than we are used to so I'm happy we played well enough to compete and have large portions of the match."

The homestanding Mustangs drew first blood on Monday when reserve Kellan Zindel scored at the 42:24 mark of the first half. SMU's one-goal halftime lead was quickly erased when Antou Jallow found the back of the net 12 minutes into the second frame. The sophomore tapped in a ball in the penalty box after some nifty one-touch passing. Junior Julian Chang and freshman Neil Dombrowski were credit with assists on the play.

With the scored tied at one, the two teams traded attacks for the remainder of regulation and into overtime. Southern Methodist was credited with three shots in the first overtime and none in the second extra frame, while UWM notched one shot in each of the ten minute overtimes.

"To keep SMU from scoring goals, you need to play disciplined and we did that tonight," Bennett added. "We base our defensive system on communication and organization and we finally saw some of that. We looked like a team that played together. You are never happy with a tie, but we are finally building chemistry. We looked like a much different squad than the one I saw Friday."

UWM will return home from Texas for the 30th annual Coca-Cola Panther Invitational this weekend. The Panthers will play host to DePaul University on Saturday (Sept. 7) and Western Illinois University on Sunday (Sept. 8). Both matches are set to begin at 2 p.m. at Engelmann Field.