MILWAUKEE - The Milwaukee men's soccer team opened the scoring with two goals in a 63-second span and put four in the net before halftime on its way to a 5-0 victory over the University of Wisconsin-Parkside Thursday evening at Engelmann Stadium.
 
Five different players found the back of the net overall. Reid Stevenson had a goal and two assists, Jason Palitang Svensson had a goal and an assist and Francesco Saporito recorded a pair of assists to lead the offense.
 
"It is something that we've really had on our minds, to prove ourselves on the offensive side of things," head coach Kris Kelderman said. "We struggled last year at times to score goals and when you score five goals against anybody, that's a good sign. Tonight, we created some chances and we finished them."
 
The Panthers dominated the exhibition contest against the Rangers, piling up a 19-5 shot advantage while getting 20 different players at least 45 minutes of playing time.
 
"The guys really did well," Kelderman said. "We got everyone significant playing time. It was a good opportunity for us and came at the right time."
 
Following a slow start where both teams were getting a feel for the game, Milwaukee struck for its first goal at the 12:47 mark. Saporito launched a 25-yard free kick over the wall and had it saved brilliantly. The ball rebounded out, however, and was followed by a Stevenson header off the cross bar before Svensson came flying through to bury it.
 
They doubled the advantage in the blink of an eye when Jaime Colin one-timed a combination of passes from Stevenson and Josh Kaye to make it 2-0 just over one minute later at the 13:50 mark.
 
"Just in general, I thought the first 10-15 minutes, the fatigue showed," Kelderman said. "We had a game against Dayton just a few days ago and here we go, playing another game right away. We fought through that and the sharpness came back. We just had to get through that. It's preseason, it's hot, guys are working hard. We had a long day of travel – eight hours one way – and just had to get through that."
 
The offensive barrage continued, with UWM adding two more goals before the halftime horn. Stevenson struck with a perfectly-timed volley on another Saporito free kick in the 35^th and Sean Reynolds made it 4-0 with a strike in the 43^rd minute.
 
After nearly a full lineup change at halftime, the Panthers reserves accounted for nine second-half shots, with Jake Kelderman tallying the final score of the evening in the 72^nd minute following a scrum in front of the goal after a UWM corner kick.
 
Magnus Flaatedal helped set that goal up, creating the corner kick when his blast on the run from the top of the box was pushed up and over the cross bar. Milwaukee also nearly had a late goal, but Evan Dujardin was denied at point-blank range on a brilliant save in the 88^th minute.

Oliver Haslund was not called on to make a save in his 45 minutes of work, while Sam Glass made one in the second half to preserve the clean sheet.
 
The team will be off until next week, wrapping up the exhibition slate with a contest against the Milwaukee Bavarians Monday. Kickoff is set for 7 p.m.