Sept. 7, 2004

MILWAUKEE -

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Scouting The Opposition Tulsa: The Golden Hurricane of the University of Tulsa will come to Engelmann Field with a 1-0-1 record in 2004 and a No. 19 national ranking. TU opened the season with a 0-0 tie with Stanford before defeating Kentucky 2-1 on Sunday. Junior forward Ryan Pore leads the Golden Hurricane attack this season after finishing second in the nation in scoring last year. Freshman forward Todd Goddard and junior midfielder Daniel Wasson have the team's lone goals this season while Dominic Cervi and Brad Lowyne have split time in net for the Missouri Valley Conference school. Tulsa is coached by 10th year head man Tom McIntosh who owns a 94-72-9 record all-time.

Penn: The University of Pennsylvania enters the week of play with an 0-1 record on the year after falling 3-1 to Villanova on Sunday. The Quakers, a member of the Ivy League, finished the 2003 season 6-9-2 and 2-5 in league action. Penn returns its top two scorers from a year ago in senior midfielder Stephen Kroculick (11 pts) and senior forward David Maier (11 pts). Senior defender Erik Violante has scored the team's lone goal this season while netminder Daniel Cepero made one save in 90 minutes of play on Sunday. The Quakers are coached by eighth year head man Brian "Rudy" Fuller.

Panther Invitational--Chapter 32 Saturday (Sept. 11) will mark the 32nd edition of the Coca-Cola Panther Invitational, making it the longest running in-season Division I soccer tournament in America. Wisconsin and Penn will open play at noon on Sunday followed by UWM and No. 19 Tulsa at 2:00 p.m. Sunday's (Sept. 12) games will begin with a Wisconsin-Tulsa matchup at 11:30 a.m. followed by Milwaukee and Penn at 1:30 p.m. Tulsa brings the best record of the four teams with a 1-0-1 mark, followed by UWM (0-0-2), Wisconsin (1-1), and Penn (0-1). Wisconsin has made 13 appearances in the invite with a 17-9 record while Tulsa will be making its fourth ever appearance at the event and will bring a 3-3 all-time record.

Panther History In The Invitational In the 31 previous Coca-Cola Panther Invitationals the UWM men's soccer team has not played the part of gracious hosts. Milwaukee owns a 45-16-1 all-time record in the event while claiming the tourney title in 20 of the 31 seasons. The Panthers, who went 1-1 in last season's event, have won five of their last six tourney contests including titles in 2001 and 2002. Under the direction of current head coach Louis Bennett UWM is 10-6 all-time in the event.

Homeward Bound Saturday's opening round game of the Coca-Cola Panther Invitational will mark the 2004 home opener for the University of Wisconsini-Milwaukee men's soccer team. UWM is 22-6-3 all-time in home openers and 5-3 in home openers under Louis Bennett. Milwaukee dropped last season's home opener, 1-0 to Denver, but claimed victories over DePaul in 2001 and 2002.

Not So Friendly Confines Sure Engelmann Field is a fan-friendly place to play. However, if you are looking for a positive response about the pitch from opposing teams you probably aren't going to get one. In the last three seasons Engelmann Field has been a house of horrors for opposing teams. Since the beginning of the 2001 season UWM owns a 28-3-1 record at Engelmann, including a 10-1 record in postseason play and a 2-0 mark in NCAA Tournament action. Saturday's contest will mark the 31st season of soccer at the field nestled behind Englemann Hall on the west edge of campus. The 1999 season was held at Uihlein Soccer Park as Engelmann Field underwent renovations.

Panthers Tie It On In Opening Weekend The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee men's soccer team opened the 2004 season with 220 minutes of soccer at the Big Toe Soccer Invitational in Madison last weekend, and, basically left town in the same position it started. The Panthers went 0-0-2 for the weekend thanks to a 0-0 tie with Dayton on Friday (Sept. 3) and a 1-1 draw with Evansville on Sunday (Sept. 5). With the two draws UWM began the season with a pair of ties for the first time in school history while tying consecutive games for the first time since the 1992 squad posted back-to-back 1-1 games versus Army and Indiana.

The Countdown Is On Ninth-year head man Louis Bennett holds virtually every other UWM men's soccer coaching record, so it's only fitting that the school's all-time win mark is next on the horizon. Bennett, who already owns school records for all-time winning percentage (.657), single-season victories (19 in 2002) and single-season winning percentage (.886 in 2002) needs just two victories to become the winningest coach in school history. Bennett owns a 108-54-11 career mark and with a pair of victories this weekend can pass Dan Harris (109 wins from 1973-83) on the all-time win list.

Pair Of Defenders Honored A pair of senior defenders were honored for their play at the 2004 Big Toe Soccer Invitational as Trent Furtsch and Ian Hoelker were named to the 11-player all-tournament team. Furtsch provided spectacular play from the left back position all weekend while the 6-3 Hoelker helped solidify the Panther defense from an interior defensive spot. As a team, UWM allowed just one goal in 220 minutes of playing time this weekend, good for a 0.41 goals against average.

Newbies Make Solid Debuts Four different freshmen made their Panther debuts this weekend with two of them, Zeke Dombrowski and Troy Spielmann, making major contributions. Dombrowski started on defense on Sunday and played all 110 minutes in the 1-1 tie versus Evansville. Spielmann, took two shots on Sunday, while creating solid offensive chances in the midfield in both contests. In addition to Dombrowski and Spielmann, Ken Ogorzalek saw time in midfield while Martin Castro appeared as a forward in both games.

Reaching New Heights Yes, there are other men' soccer teams in the Horizon League. However, due to the recent dominace of the UWM program those other teams have had very little time to shine. And, if the preaseaon coaches poll is any indication, then 2004 shouldn't be any different. In the poll released earlier this month Milwaukee was once again picked to top the league following regular season championships in each of the last three seasons. With the three straight titles UWM joined Evansville as the only programs to win three straight regular season titles and can become the only school to win four straight with a championship in 2004.