MILWAUKEE – The Milwaukee men's soccer team scored a trio of second-half goals – two by Vuk Latinovich – to get past Parkside, 3-2, Friday night at Engelmann Stadium.
 
The Panthers scored twice in the early portion of the second half to turn around a 1-0 deficit against the Rangers at intermission. The lead grew to 3-1 before a late goal by the visitors closed out the scoring in the exhibition match.
 
"Tonight was another opportunity to play a good number of people and I think it was all well-deserved," head coach Kris Kelderman said. "There is a lot of inter-team competition and ultimately that is going to make us better. There was a good showing by a number of people tonight."
 
Milwaukee turned up the offense after intermission and made it a new game quickly. Following a quick turnover, Evan Conway set up Matthew Cahill for the equalizer at the 47:06 mark.
 
"I certainly wasn't disappointed with the performance in the first half," Kelderman said. "There were moments when we could have been sharper, but in general, I thought we were fairly decent. Prpa steps up and scores a really nice goal and we find ourselves down, 1-0. Guys were disappointed at half and I thought the response was really good."
 
Less than five minutes later, Latinovich sent a 22-yard free kick into the back of the net for a 2-1 advantage.
 
Back-and-forth from there for a lengthy portion of the second half, it was Latinovich again with a pretty goal to make it 3-1 in the Panthers' favor. Suad Suljic sent the corner kick to the post, where Latinovich timed it perfectly with a back heel touch that crossed the line at the 81:01 mark.
 
The defense held on from there, despite Parkside netting a strike in the closing minute.
 
"We started the game with five newcomers in the starting lineup and had more come in as reserves," Kelderman said. "Is it an end product right now? No, we are still finding our way. But we are much further along than day one and that's the plan."
 
For the game, Milwaukee ended the night with a 15-to-12 advantage in shots (5-3 shots on goal) and recorded all four of the corner kicks. Andreas Soerensen paced the offense with four shots, while Cahill added three.
 
In net, Freddy Lorenzen played all 90 minutes and recorded one save.
 
Up next is the season opener, scheduled for Friday at Engelmann Stadium. Game time against Western Illinois is set for 7 p.m.