CHICAGO, Ill. - Nick Moon and
Vuk Latinovich netted goals and goalkeeper
Greg Baxa came up with a stop in the penalty kick shootout to help the Milwaukee men's soccer team earn the victory following a 2-2 draw against Loyola University Chicago Saturday afternoon at Loyola Soccer Park.
"It was a good team effort, especially considering it is only four days into preseason camp," head coach
Kris Kelderman said. "It was a tough opponent to open against – Loyola was in the NCAA tourney last year. We played 21 guys in the match, including a lot of newcomers. We had a good look at many players and have a better idea of our team moving forward."
Moon opened the scoring in the 39th minute, corralling a loose ball off a turnover and racing towards the goal. His successful kick made it 1-0 at the 38:06 mark.
UWM looked to hold that one-goal advantage at intermission, but the Ramblers had other thoughts, finding the back of the net just seconds before the halftime horn, making it a new game at 1-1 at the 44:52 mark.
Loyola kept that momentum going, eventually doubling up its lead in the 73rd minute on a goal by Connor Stevenson.
Newcomer
Vuk Latinovich brought it back to level, netting a free kick from 35 yards out in the 80th minute.
The teams went directly to a penalty-kick shootout following regulation, where Milwaukee earned the 9-8 win after Baxa came through. PK's were attempted and made (in order) by:
Josh Kaye, Latinovich,
Magnus Flaatedal,
Jonathan Stadler,
Francesco Saporito,
Reid Stevenson,
Jake Kelderman,
Alex Eastman and
Nick Anguil-Andriacchi.
Freshman
Freddy Lorenzen got the start in goal and recorded one save. Baxa made a pair of stops in his 45 minutes of work, while also manning the pipes for PK's.
Milwaukee was outshot by Loyola by a count of 10-to-5, and had just one of the 12 corner kicks in the match.
The contest was the first of the exhibition season for the Panthers, who just reported earlier this week. The result was a good one, coming against an LUC squad that went 14-4-1 last season and advanced into the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
Up next, the Panthers will be off for a week, closing out the exhibition schedule at home next Saturday when they welcome Dayton at 1 p.m. at Engelmann Stadium.
