Sept. 7, 2003

Box Score

MILWAUKEE - The No. 14 University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee men's soccer team made up for three-plus halves of scoreless play with a three-goal second half en route to a 3-2 victory over Alabama A&M in the final day of the Panther Invitational here Sunday (Sept. 7). The Panthers broke open a scoreless halftime tie early in the second stanza to improve to 3-1 on the year while the Bulldogs fell to 1-3 with the loss.

"We have to be thankful for the 3-2 win but it may have been one of the worst wins we've had since I've been here," UWM head coach Louis Bennett said. "But you need to give Alabama A&M some credit for that. They controlled the tempo of the game and it was played the way they wanted it to. There just wasn't the consistency and continuity in our play, and there definitely wasn't the quality."

The two teams played an even, and uneventful first half, taking just a combined three shots to go with three corner kicks apiece. The Panthers created just one real scoring chance in the first half, but Kyle Lance's shot was snuffed out by A&M keeper Andrew Jjombwe. The frame was a physical one as the Bulldogs committed 12 fouls to UWM's four.

Things quickly changed in the second half, however, as both offenses picked up, as did the emotions of both teams. Milwaukee ended its three-half scoring drought just 3:39 into the second frame when Kyle Lance tapped home a shot in front of the net thanks to an accurate crossing pass from Chris Brisson. The Milwaukee lead was shortlived, however, as AAMU's Eugene Sepuya headed home a loose ball to tie the game at the 54:51 mark.

The two teams played evenly for the next five minutes of the game before emotions ran high. UWM took a 2-1 lead at the 60:46 mark when Bobby Lish headed home his third goal of the year. Lish scored from 10 yards out off of a high-arcing cross from Neil Dombrowski. In addition, Alabama A&M's Sepuya was issued a red card and thrown out of the game after arguing with the referee. The Panthers capitalized on the one-man advantage in the 75th minute when Hermann Award candidate Antou Jallow scored his first goal of the season for a 3-1 Panther lead. Jallow missed his second goal of the game two minutes later when Jjombwe stopped the striker's penalty kick.

The Bulldogs continued to push forward and actually got within one goal when they scored in the 87th minute. Forward Atigo Monday headed home a rebound shot off the crossbar to cut the Panther lead to 3-2. Fortunately, UWM controlled play the rest of the game to take the victory going away. Milwaukee finished the 2003 Panther Invitational in second place while Denver, which tied Cal Poly 1-1 in Sunday's opener, took home first place. Jallow, Trent Furtsch, and Tighe Dombrowski were named to the All-Tournament and were joined by A&M's Musa Gibba and Ikechuku Eziefule, Cal Poly's Greg Blevins and Ronnie Silva and Alejandro Diaz, Christian Bowers, Liam Girard and Mark Wellen of Denver. Wellen was named the Tournament Most Valuable Player.

"We finally got a two-goal lead and a chance to make it three on the PK but we couldn't capitalize and put them away," noted Bennett. "We were tentative and an immature mistake in the midfield cost us a goal late and that's unacceptable. We could never pull away in this game but thankfully we got the 'W'".

Milwaukee will next play Friday (Sept. 12) versus Dayton in the Louisville/Seelbach Classic Tournament in Louisville, Kent. The UWM-Dayton contest is set to begin at 5:00 p.m. CST.