Oct. 13, 2006

Box Score |  Quotes |  Notes

MILWAUKEE - Sophomore Ryan Germann made his first appearance in a UWM uniform a memorable one on Friday night, helping lead the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee men's soccer team to a 1-0 victory over Michigan. Senior Craig Mallace provided the scoring, leading the Panthers (5-8-2) past the Wolverines (5-7-3) on a cold night at Engelmann Field.

Germann made seven saves in his first start of the year, including several of the highlight variety. The last of the night came in the 87th minute on a Michigan blast from the top of the box to preserve the clean sheet and the win.

"He really stepped up for us tonight," UWM head coach Jon Coleman said. "After the Butler game we had talked about the door of opportunity swinging open for a lot of guys. He trained well during the week, he earned his opportunity, and he stepped in and did a fantastic job."

The lone goal of the game came in the 67th minute, when Mallace put home a penalty kick for the game-winner, improving the Panthers to 5-1-1 at home this year.

The play that ended in the penalty kick situation started from near midfield for the Panthers. Senior Billy Meier sent a pass to the sideline where junior Travis Phillips took control and carried the ball unchallenged into the box. His defender was beaten when he brought him down, resulting in the foul to be called.

Germann made quite a first impression, making his first save in the 26th minute when he dove to push Jake Stacy's shot off the post. Then, in the 27th minute, the Wolverines had a breakaway opportunity. It was Stacy again, who carried the ball into the box and rifled a 15-yard shot at the goal. Germann was in the right place to make the quick reaction stop and knock it up and over the goal.

"It was everything I hoped it would be - it was a lot of fun," Germann said. "Under the lights, everyone played well - it was a good team victory."

Michigan had the upper hand at first, recording the first seven shots of the contest. UWM got things going in the 35th minute and went from there, recording eight unanswered shots. The first was from Mallace, who booted a long ball from midfield that backed the MU keeper up to the goal line before bouncing off the cross bar.

The team then had a nice build-up in the 39th minute, with junior Zeke Dombrowski narrowly missing from the top of the 18-yard box when he sent one wide right.

Junior Andre Francois got in on the action, stealing an errant goalie throw and trying to beat MU keeper Ryan Bennett with a quick volley, but that shot went wide as well.

"Defensively we were sound, and offensively we started generating some shots," Coleman said. "I thought we had great opportunities - we had two open goals and we hit the bar twice."

For the game, Milwaukee outshot its Big Ten foes by a 15-to-14 count, with Michigan the seven-to-five edge in shots on goal. They also forced two corner kicks to one for UWM, and were whistled for 19 of the 36 fouls and two of the three yellow cards.

The Panthers will look to carry the momentum into a big Horizon League match-up on Sunday, when they play host to Cleveland State at 11 a.m. The game against the Vikings is the first of a men's/women's doubleheader, with the women taking on Butler at 1:30 p.m.