DeKALB, Ill. – Jack Wagner scored an early goal to grab momentum and the Milwaukee men's soccer team went on to outlast Northern Illinois by a final score of 2-1 Saturday from the NIU Soccer Complex.
The Panthers (4-3-2, 2-1-0 Horizon League) defeated the Huskies (4-3-1, 1-1-1 Horizon League) for the third time in the past four years and have now had possession of the "LeWang Cup" since 2023. The cup was named in honor of John LeWang, who came to NIU as head coach in 1980 following his time as an assistant at Milwaukee and died in a car accident after his first season leading the Huskies. Since 1981, the two teams have played for the trophy named in his honor.
The decision also snapped what was a four-game unbeaten streak (3-0-1) for the Huskies, who have joined the Horizon League starting with this school year.
"Now it's a trophy cup game and a conference game," head coach
Kris Kelderman said. "It's always a tough game against NIU, especially at their place. They're a team that plays good technical soccer. I thought we got off to a pretty good start today. The energy was good, but I thought the quality was good."
Wagner found the opening goal at the 7:57 mark, started off a free kick from
Dominic Zuniga. The first touch from the Huskies went to Huwiler, who sent a header to far post. Wagner was there to clean up the rest, giving the visitors the early advantage, 1-0.
The team did not allow a shot to Northern Illinois of any kind until 23
rd minute and nearly doubled the lead in the 25
th minute.
Roy Nozawa, who had just subbed in, stole a back pass headed to the goalkeeper but sent the attempt just wide a mere 45 seconds after subbing in. Shots were 7-2 in MKE's favor at the break.
Things went Milwaukee's way in the 61
st minute when Wagner's header off a free kick was knocked in by the defense to make it 2-0.
"Missed a chance to make it 2-0 in the first, which is something that we really haven't experienced in a while to get a little bit of a cushion," Kelderman said. "But we got it later to go up 2-0. It was just a good overall performance. We knew that NIU was going to put pressure on us in the second half, but the guys, they bent but they didn't break. So, it was a really good team performance."
The Huskies did find a goal to make it 2-1 in the 71
st and really pressed down the stretch. The game was played in a heavy downpour all match, making things more difficult.
"The environment was hard for both teams," Kelderman said of the rain. "It's hard to keep control of things, so the game becomes a little more direct. It's a lot of running and gunning and shooting and slipping. It's hard to predict where the ball is going to bounce and this and that. But fortunately, things worked out in our favor."
Carson Pridie finished with four saves overall in net but made two huge stops in the second half. The first came on a 54
th-minute NIU corner. The second was spectacular, coming off a close-range header on a free kick in the 85
th minute that proved to be the difference.
"First and foremost, our team defense – our back line has been very solid," Kelderman stated. "We're not giving up many goals. Still got to keep working on scoring a few more, but that's three games in a row and two conference games in a row as far as in the win column. I feel like we're in a pretty good place right now."
Today's result marked a solid stretch for the team, who has beaten Northern Kentucky (1-0 Sept. 12), Bowling Green (1-0 Sept. 20), and now Northern Illinois in that span.
"We said this in the beginning of the season that it would take a little bit of time to try to coordinate and get everybody together and get comfortable with everybody," Kelderman said. "Finding our roles for the guys on the team and getting comfortable with each other's tendencies … I feel like we're starting to click a little bit now."
For the game, NIU did end up with the 11-7 shot advantage (5-2 shots on goal), as well as 10 of the 12 corner kicks in the match. Nozawa led MKE with a pair of shots.
The team returns to action Tuesday, with another trophy on the line. This time it will be for the "Milwaukee Cup" at Marquette, with action set to get underway at 6 p.m. from Valley Fields that evening.
