MILWAUKEE – Parker Donahugh made seven saves in net and Stephanie Recinos scored the game-winner in the 84^th minute to send the Milwaukee women's soccer team to a well-deserved 1-0 victory over Cleveland State Thursday evening at Engelmann Stadium.
 
The Panthers (5-3-1, 2-1 Horizon League) outshot the Vikings (4-4-2, 1-2 Horizon League) by a count of 18-10 and had 62 percent of the possession on the evening, but had to wait until late to see Recinos play the hero role as the game was winding down.
 
"Credit to Cleveland State, I thought they were very good on the night," head coach Kevin Boyd said. "They made it incredibly difficult for us and they had chances of their own. Those kinds of games, we outshot them 18-10, but those are games that kind of bite you sometimes late, so it was nice to see us get a goal and then hold on and keep our shutout, which we have been focusing on."
 
Recinos, who had just subbed on in the 82^nd minute, followed up Natalie Auble's attempt inside the penalty area, seeing the saved chance rebound right back to her. She one-timed it over the goalie and into the net for her second goal of the season at the 83:42 mark, keeping MKE perfect in the all-time series with CSU at 23-0-1, providing the lone goal in what was a ninth consecutive win over the visitors.
 
With the game winding down, Donahugh came up with a huge save off a Cleveland State corner kick in the 83^rd minute. She booted the ball down the field, with a Lainey Higgins pass providing Auble with the perfect lead a few touches later. Auble's shot was saved by the charging goalkeeper, but the loose ball came right back to the charging Recinos for the left-footed finish.
 
Recinos helped close out the match as well, forcing a turnover near midfield in the closing seconds and taking it into the corner to kill the game and hand Milwaukee the win.
 
"Hats off to her," Boyd said of Recinos. "She's on it right now, she feels good, she feels confident, and looks great. She's getting rewarded."
 
Despite heavy possession all night, the MKE offense was not able to produce many quality chances, especially after halftime. One came right after intermission, with Lexi Blaser seeing her touch off a corner kick cleared off the line at the 49:05 mark.
 
It was more of the same in the first period, this time preventing Kayla Rollins from her seventh goal of the fall. Anna Karam charged down the right side and sent a well-placed cross to the box, with Rollins there to redirect with a strong header. The ball was headed in, only to be cleared off the line by CSU's Rylee Bussen at the last second.
 
"Whenever you are in a game like this, you just know that if you don't put one away, you are leaving it there for something crazy to happen," Boyd said of the near-goals. "Fortunately, they didn't get one and Steph (Recinos) came in and tucked one away really well. It was actually a little more difficult of a shot than it looked because she had traffic coming through at the same time. I thought she did really well finishing that."
 
Rollins also had an open look with the goalie out of position in the 68^th minute but sent the attempt high and wide to keep it at 0-0 at the time.
 
The final stats included that 18-10 shot count, seeing a 9-7 edge in shots on goal for MKE. Milwaukee also earned a 5-4 advantage in corner kicks. Rollins and Auble paced the offense with three shots each. The clean sheet for Donahugh was her fourth of the season, lowering her goals-against average to 0.95 in the process.
 
"I thought she did a great job," Boyd said of Donahugh. "We have two even keepers right now and we know that. Kendall (Edwards) is doing a good job too. We stuck with Parker, she did well, and kept a clean sheet."
 
Up next, Milwaukee heads to Ohio to take on Youngstown State Sunday. Game time against the Penguins is set for 12 p.m. CST.