Printer-friendly format Email this article UWM and NIU battle for the LeWang Cup Tuesday

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UWM Hosts NIU Tuesday Before Heading To Chicago On The Weekend

Panthers face Loyola in key league matchup Saturday

Oct. 13, 2008

The LeWang Cup will be on the line Tuesday night, as the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee men's soccer team stays at home to welcome Northern Illinois University to Engelmann Field for a 7 p.m. start. Then, on the weekend, the Panthers head to Chicago for a big game against Loyola. The Ramblers, who won the regular season Horizon League championship a year ago, are 8-2-1 and ranked in most of the major polls. That league showdown will get underway at 7 p.m. at Loyola Soccer Park.

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Milwaukee's match with Northern Illinois will mark the 35th showdown between the regional foes and former Midwestern Collegiate Conference rivals, with UWM currently leading the series, 18-13-3. In addition, the winner of the match claims the John LeWang Cup, named after the former NIU coach who was killed in a car accident prior to the 1981 season. The game is the second of three "cup" games that UWM plays for each season (the team plays Green Bay for the "Chancellor's Cup" and Marquette for the "Milwaukee Cup" each year).

The Huskies come into Tuesday No. 7 in the NSCAA Great Lakes Region. Last season, NIU took advantage of a late own goal in a 1-0 win. In 2006, the match went to overtime, with NIU regaining the cup for the first time in seven years with a 1-0 victory. The Panthers had won six-straight in the series from 2000 to 2005.

If you cannot make it to the game, follow along on Gametracker on the UWM website at www.uwmpanthers.com.

UWM owns a sterling 16-3-1 record all-time against the Ramblers, with the team's splitting a pair of 1-0 decisions the past two seasons with the road team winning each time.

SCOUTING THE OPPONENT:
NORTHERN ILLINOIS: The Huskies will enter play Tuesday at 6-2-3 overall. They played just once last week, earning a 1-1 draw against Buffalo Friday. After starting the season 5-0-2, the team has gone 1-2-1 since September 21. In the past four years, head coach Steve Simmons has won 45 matches - equaling a school-record for the most wins in four seasons. In that time, NIU won a Mid-American Conference Championship and had 21 players named All-MAC. The Huskies were picked second in the league preseason poll and return six starters and 17 letterwinners from a 2007 team that lost in the MAC tournament semifinals.

NIU has had 12 different players score goals this year, led in both points (9) and goals (4) by Brad Horton. In goal, Joe Zimka has played every minute, recording a 1.00 GAA. Zimka set an NCAA record with his 0.21 goals against average in 2006.

LOYOLA: The Ramblers play DePaul Wednesday before hosting the Panthers Saturday. They start the week 8-2-1 overall and 3-1-0 in league play, earning national-rankings in most polls this season. Last week, they topped Valparaiso, 2-0, Sunday and then defeated Bradley, 3-0, Saturday for their fourth-straight victorious shutout.

The defending Horizon League regular-season champs have an experienced roster, including 2007 Horizon League Player of the Year and Offensive Player of the Year Michael Ferguson, who owned team and league highs in goals (15), points (32), shots (52) and game-winning goals (7) last season. Keum Sung Kim and Brian Byrne and junior Eric Gehrig will also be looking to build on success from 2007. Gehrig (4G/2A) and Kim (3G/4A) top the squad in 2008 with 10 points each, while Byrne has been rock-solid, recording a 0.68 GAA and .821 save percentage.

TIME TO EARN THE HOME FIELD ADVANTAGE
The Panthers recent funk continued last week, as the team dropped a 4-0 decision to Wisconsin Wednesday and then fell, 2-0, at home Saturday night to Green Bay.

At 0-3-2 in conference play, UWM is winless after five league games for the first time ever. The Panthers will need to get things rolling quickly to earn a first round home game in the league tournament. The three games remaining will be a tough task, as they face Loyola (regular season champions last year), UIC (ranked in the top 10 in all national polls last week) and close out the league slate with Wright State (currently 2-1-1 and ahead of Milwaukee).

With the current tournament format, the top three teams receive byes. At this point, those spots look to be heading to Butler (3-0-1) and Loyola (3-1-0) for sure, with the next team a complete toss-up between Cleveland State (3-2-0) and the trio of UIC, Green Bay or Wright State (all 2-1-1). The No. 4-No. 6 seeds will then host first-round playoff games. With Detroit (1-3-1) ahead of it as well, UWM needs to keep winning to land that postseason game at Engelmann.

THE YOUNG GUNS
Freshmen Evan Bartzis, Ross Van Osdol and Eric Frazier have made nice impressions in their first season, accounting for nine of UWM's 13 goals to this point in the year. If you look at the stats, Milwaukee's top five point producers are freshmen or sophomores. Frazier has a team-high 12 points (4G/4A) while Bartzis is second with six points (3G). Sophomore Peter Sanger (2G/1A) and Robert Refai (1G/3A) are third with five each, with Van Osdol (2G) next with four points.

POINT-PER-GAME CLUB
Speaking of freshman Eric Frazier, one look at the scoring chart shows the production he has helped bring to the offense already this season. He leads the team with 12 points in 13 games, a point total that currently ranks sixth in the Horizon League (his four goals are eighth and four assists third). The 12 points is more than any player recorded last season (Zeke Dombrowski had 11) and his four assists also top the three the 2007 team leader finished with.

His goal, assist and point totals are the highest for a UWM freshman since Neil Dombrowski scored five goals, recorded four assists and registered 14 points in 2002.

200 SOUNDS GOOD
The Panthers love to play at Engelmann Field and their record over the years proves just that. Their all-time ledger at the field entering the 2008 campaign was 195-69-20, an impressive .722 winning percentage. With nine games on the home slate this fall, looks like UWM could be celebrating victory No. 200 on its storied home field at some point this season.

No. 196: Cal State Northridge, 1-0, Sept. 14
No. 197: SIUE, 2-1, Sept. 20
No. 198:
No. 199:
No. 200:

JUST CALL HIM MR. PLAYMAKER
Sophomore Robert Refai has made the most of his recent increase in playing time, as he has now recorded three assists in the past three games he has played, accounting for helpers on three of the five UWM goals scored in that stretch.

After averaging just under 35 minutes a game in his first five appearances, he has played over 64 minutes a game in the past three outings. Seven of his 14 shots on the season have also come in that span. His two assists against Butler Sept. 28 marked the first multi-assist game for a UWM player since Craig Mallace recorded two against Butler Oct. 8, 2006.

LATE-GAME DRAMA
The winning goal that Eric Frazier netted Sept. 5 against Dayton is one of the latest goals to be scored, time-wise, to claim a victory for UWM in regulation and avoid overtime in quite a while. It marked the latest a winning Milwaukee goal was scored since Neil Dombrowski netted the game-winner with just 33 seconds remaining in a match against Akron on Oct. 5, 2003.

OVERTIME JINX CONTINUES
In falling to Cleveland State, 2-1, in overtime Oct. 5, UWM saw a streak get extended once again that they would like to put to rest: the team is now 0-8-15 in its past 23 overtime matches. It was 0-2-3 in 2007, 0-2-2 in 2006, 0-3-5 in 2005 and lost in extra time in the final match of the 2004 season (2-1 at UCSB in the NCAA Tournament). The Panthers last OT victory came Oct. 31, 2004, a 1-0 win over Cleveland State.

HORIZON LEAGUE WONDERS
UWM has won the Horizon League regular season title in four of the past seven seasons, posting a win-loss record of 39-7-4 in that span. The Panthers became the first-ever Horizon League school to win four-straight soccer titles (2002-05), breaking Evansville's old standard of three consecutive (1989-91).

DEFENSE!! ... DEFENSE!!
The 0-0 draw against Binghamton Sept. 12 had as much to do with the weather and field conditions as anything else, but also marked the first scoreless game for UWM since playing UIC Oct. 12 of the 2005 season. It was also just the third scoreless game since the 1999 season.

SENIORS READY TO BOOKEND CAREERS
Three seniors on the 2008 squad will look to go out on a high note, and a return trip to the NCAA Tournament is what they have in mind. After going to the second round of the tournament in their freshman season, Travis Phillips, Grant Fernstrum and Adam Skalecki look to improve on their NCAA ledger with a return trip this fall. The fourth senior on the squad, Ryan Germann, was a transfer to Milwaukee after his freshman season at American University.

SHINING IN LEAGUE PLAY
After a slow start to the 2007 season, the Panthers righted the ship in time for the start of Horizon League play. In their eight conference games, the team gave up just five goals (posting four clean sheets) for a team goals against average of 0.61.

They held edges in every statistical category: goals (9-5), assists (8-5), shots (95-85), shots on goal (41-31) and corner kicks (48-38). Five different players accounted for the five game-winning goals en route to a second-place showing in the standings.

SO CLOSE, YET SO FAR
If it feels like the Panthers have been in every match but haven't been able to catch a few necessary breaks the past few seasons, it could be considered a factual statement. After a 2-1 defeat at the hands of Cleveland State Oct. 5, the trend sounds familiar: 20 of the last 27 UWM losses dating back the past two-plus years have been by one goal.

Further analysis of the schedule a year ago shows just what kind of competition head coach Jon Coleman had on the slate. Overall, the combined W-L-T record of all opponents for the season was 169-149-79, a .525 win percentage. For comparison, UIC, which won the league tournament and made a deep run into the NCAA postseason, ended the year with an opponent W-L-T record of just 216-210-83, a .505 win percentage.

Seven of UWM's 2007 opponents were ranked at one point during the season and the W-L-T record of the teams that handed the Panthers their 12 losses was 122-72-48 (.604).

In 2006, the Panthers overall record consisted of nine losses, with eight of them one-goal setbacks. Three of them came at the hands of Top 25 teams: 1-0 to No. 2 SMU Aug. 27, 2-1 to No. 6 Washington in overtime Sept. 10 and 1-0 to No. 12 UIC Oct. 3.

HOME COOKING
Despite a 2-3-2 mark at Engelmann in 2007, the Panthers still rank right up there with the best in the country when it comes to home-field advantage. In 2006, that was no different, as the Panthers posted back-to-back shutouts to open the home slate and finished 7-2-1. Since the start of the 2001 season, UWM has turned Engelmann Field into a place visiting teams do not want to see on their schedule. They have gone 52-8-3 on their home pitch in that time, including a 13-2 mark in postseason play and a perfect 2-0 mark in NCAA Tournament action.

QUITE AN EXHIBITION
The Panthers got the 2008 season off on the right foot, marching through a two-game exhibition slate where they went back-to-back games without allowing a goal. The first came Aug. 18 with an impressive 1-0 victory over Bradley, a team that advanced to the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament after winning regular season and tournament titles in the Missouri Valley Conference a year ago and entered ranked No. 21 by the NSCAA's preseason poll. The Panthers then toppled UW-Whitewater, 3-0, Aug. 20 with an impressive overall performance, using all 20 players that were dressed and healthy for the game.

The four goals were scored by four different players, including two by newcomers. Sophomore Robert Refai led the way with eight shots in the two games, with junior Nicholas Gerard-Larson, sophomore Peter Sanger and freshman Nick Dundon recording four each. Dundon and senior Travis Phillips topped the team with three points (1G/1A). In goal, seniors Grant Fernstrum and Ryan Germann split the time in half in each contest, with the defense playing so well in front of them that they were only called upon to make five total saves combined.

PANTHERS IN THE PROS
After wrapping up his college career in 2007, Steve Bode was drafted by the Chicago Fire of MLS and by the Milwaukee Wave.

In addition to Bode continuing his career in the world of professional soccer, former UWM player Tenzin Rampa was also drafted following his senior campaign by the Milwaukee Wave in the fifth round of the 2008 Major Indoor Soccer League College Draft.

HITTING THE BOOKS
UWM had three players honored for their work in the classroom by the league office last year. Steve Bode, Zeke Dombrowski and Ken Ogorzalek were all named to the Horizon Academic All-League Team in December. Dombrowski was also selected as the league Scholar Athlete of the Week in October.

After graduation, Ogorzalek went on to receive a prestigious Graduate Research Fellowship from the National Science Foundation to pursue his graduate degree at the University of California-Berkeley in structural engineering. Nearly 40,000 students apply to the NSF fellowship program each year, less than 1,000 go on to earn the awards.

The Panther men were also once again named a recipient of the NCSAA/adidas Team Academic Award from the National Soccer Coaches Association of America.

UWM IN THE POLLS
The Panthers were picked by league coaches to place fifth in the Horizon League regular season, according to the results of the preseason poll announced Aug. 18 by the league office. Milwaukee has advanced to the NCAA Tournament in five of the past seven seasons, reaching the second round in the last four it appeared (2002-05). It has compiled a league record of 39-7-4 in that time.

UIC, which advanced to the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament last season and is ranked as high as No. 16 in the national preseason polls, took the top spot for the second-straight year with 64 points and eight first place votes. Green Bay landed in second, compiling 52 points to edge out Loyola, which had 51. Butler (43) came in just ahead of UWM (39), with Valparaiso (26), Wright State (20), Detroit (16) and Cleveland State (13) rounding out the poll.

1. UIC (8 first place votes) - 64 pts.
2. Green Bay (1) - 52
3. Loyola - 51
4. Butler - 43
5. Milwaukee - 39
6. Valparaiso - 26
7. Wright State - 20
8. Detroit - 16
9. Cleveland State - 13

ON TAP
Milwaukee hosts one of its biggest non-conference games of the season, welcoming Marquette to Engelmann Field Wednesday for the annual battle for the Milwaukee Cup in a 7 p.m. game under the lights. Then, it's back to league play Saturday, hosting top-10 league foe UIC in another 7 p.m. start.