Oct. 31, 2008

Box Score

MILWAUKEE - Braden Fleak scored in the 101st minute to send Wright State University to a 1-0 victory over the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee men's soccer team Friday night at Engelmann Field. The Panthers (4-9-5, 1-5-2 Horizon League) drop the double-overtime heartbreaker to the Raiders (5-12-1, 3-3-1 Horizon league) despite a brilliant game by senior goalkeeper Ryan Germann.

Germann made a career-best 12 saves in the match, including an impressive stop just seconds before Fleak's game-winner. After getting turned away the first time, Fleak collected the loose ball nearly at the end line, connecting on the 15-yard shot from an impossible angle for his eighth goal of the season to end it.

"That was a tough one to swallow," UWM head coach Jon Coleman said. "With it being `Senior Night', I was really proud of the way the seniors played. They worked really hard and showed a lot of dedication - it was too bad that we could not get a result for them. Germann was great - he kept us in the game. We had opportunities, but did not create as many as we would have liked. I thought we were a little flat at times."

Heading into overtime, it was Milwaukee that nearly ended it first. Freshman Eric Frazier dribbled through traffic at the top of the box after taking a pass from senior Adam Skalecki, creating enough room to get off a shot. It looked to be on target, but went just wide of the right post.

Germann made a diving save on an attempt by Milovan Milosevic in the 94th minute, pushing it just wide of the post. He was at his best late in regulation, coming up with two brilliant saves in the final three minutes against Fleak. The first came in the 88th minute and the second in the 89th, making a spectacular close-range stop of a blast after Fleak was open following a thru ball past the back line.

The loss was a tough one for UWM in the league standings, as it needed a win tonight to help secure a first round home game in the upcoming Horizon League Tournament.

"For the sake of conference tournament, we put ourselves in this situation and now we are going to have to travel," Coleman said. "Wherever that may be will be irrelevant; we are going to have to come ready to play. We haven't had the success we would have liked to have had at home, so maybe getting on the road might not be a bad thing."

For the match, Wright State held advantages of 22-to-7 in shots, 13-to-1 in shots on goal and 6-to-1 on corner kicks. As noted, Germann's 12 saves were a career-high and marked the most for a UWM keeper since Doug Fabio made 12 in a game against Green Bay on September 9, 1992 (The 12 stops ties for 10th-best in the UWM record book for a single game). WSU's Matt Koewler needed to make one save for the shutout win.

With each of the other eight league teams playing their final conference games Sunday, the only thing Milwaukee knows for sure is that it will be on the road for the first round game November 6. Opponent, location and game time will be decided Sunday and will be posted to the UWM website as soon as it is available.

"Now the regular season is behind us," Coleman said. "Now, we have a new season to look forward to and we all start with a record of zero and zero. It's everything to play for. It's not what we did before that matters; it's what we do next. That is what matters."