Oct. 26, 2011

Box Score

MILWAUKEE - The University of Wisconsin scored a pair of first-half goals and held on from there, handing the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee men's soccer team a 2-0 loss Wednesday night at Engelmann Stadium.

Despite a second-half advantage of 7-to-4 in shots and 9-to-3 in corner kicks, the Panthers (5-8-2) could not find the back of the net against the Badgers (8-6-2) in dropping their second-straight match.

"It was one of those games where neither team had many great chances, but we made a couple of mistakes in the first half and were punished for them," UWM head coach Chris Whalley said. "In the second half, we had a similar chance and it goes just wide - maybe that's just some of the luck we are having right now. They are a good, organized, hard-working team. John (Trask) has done a nice job there. It was a good game for the spectators, it was just disappointing we didn't pass the ball the way we can and didn't create many chances like we have been doing."

Down, 2-0, after a 34th-minute goal by Tomislav Zadro, Milwaukee tried to make a dent in the deficit and had a look right before the halftime whistle. Junior Jamie Bladen picked up a loose ball in the box and tried to volley a shot on net, but his attempt went just wide in the final minute before intermission.

The Panthers continued to turn up the pressure in the second and came away with some of their best opportunities of the night. In the 63rd minute, senior Keegan Ziada took a feed from sophomore Riley Weiner at the left wing of the penalty area and rifled a shot to the near post. Wisconsin's Max Jentsch made his best save of the night on it, using a full-out dive to knock the ball wide of the post.

In the 79th Milwaukee had another great chance, but senior Robert Refai's shot from the right wing went wide across the goal box.

"I don't think you can say we didn't have any chances tonight - we created some decent chances," Whalley said. "We just need to be more ruthless in front of the goal. We turned the ball over too much and because of that we were defending too much."

Junior John Shakon made three saves in the loss, but two of them did come early and were impressive stops to keep the match scoreless at the time. He went high to take away a possible goal by Trevor Wheeler in the 15th minute and then made a diving stop at the post of an attempt from Joey Tennyson in the 18th minute.

Scoreless until the 25th minute, the Badgers struck first. Blake Succa took a pass in the middle of the field and rifled home his first goal of the season at the 24:52 mark from about 30 yards away. Less than 10 minutes later, UW played a ball back to the midfield line and then a through ball found Tomislav Zadro on the wing, who chipped it to the far post for his fifth goal of the season.

The Panthers ended up going 2-1 against their three in-state rivals on the season with the loss. Wisconsin evened the all-time series at 15-15-6 with the win and has now gone 6-1-2 in the past nine meetings between the two schools.

For the game, UWM owned a 14-to-10 advantage in shots but was able to put just three of them on frame compared to five for the visitors. The Panthers earned 11 of the 15 corner kicks in the match, with the Badgers whistled for 11 of the 16 fouls in front a crowd of 871 on a cool fall night.

Up next, UWM welcomes Loyola to Engelmann Stadium for an important Horizon League matchup. Kickoff is set for 7 p.m. against the Ramblers.