Oct. 19, 2009

The LeWang Cup will be on the line Tuesday afternoon, as the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee men's soccer team hits the road to battle Northern Illinois University in a 3 p.m. start. Then, on the weekend, the Panthers welcome Valparaiso University to Engelmann Field for a league match-up against the Crusaders in an important game in the league standings.

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Milwaukee's match with Northern Illinois will mark the 36th showdown between the regional foes and former Midwestern Collegiate Conference rivals, with UWM currently leading the series, 18-13-4. 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 at 6-6-1 after falling to No. 1 Akron, 1-0. Last season, NIU scored twice to earn a 2-2 tie in Milwaukee and keep the cup. The Panthers had won six-straight in the series from 2000 to 2005.

The match with the Crusaders will be just the fourth regular season confrontation between the two schools, with UWM owning a 1-0-2 mark after the two teams tied, 2-2, a year ago. A win would mark the 200th for UWM at Engelmann Field, as it carries a record of 199-77-23 all-time at home into the contest.

SCOUTING THE OPPONENT:
NORTHERN ILLINOS: The Huskies are 6-6-1 after falling to No. 1 Akron, 1-0, this past weekend. NIU enters Tuesday's game having played some of the most difficult competition in the country. Overall, Northern Illinois' 13 opponents have compiled an 100-68-23 record, a .589 winning percentage. They previously tied then-No. 1 North Carolina earlier in the season as well.

Luis De Le Cerda leads the offense with 11 points and five goals, while Brad Horton is second with 10 points and four goals. Jordan Godsey has played all but one game in net, posting a 0.62 GAA and 49 saves.

VALPARAISO: The Crusaders became just the second side this season to defeat Horizon League leader Green Bay, as they recorded a 3-2 OT win Saturday to improve to 6-6-1 overall and 2-2-1 in league play. Brendan Roth came up with the deciding goal for Valpo, which also got scores from Sam Haines and Roby Del Giudice. Zack Stivers leads the team with five goals and 12 points, while Ryan Schwarz has played every minute in goal, recording a 1.27 GAA and 51 saves. A total of 23 players have seen time on the pitch this season for Valpo, with 18 of those players appearing in at least ten of the Crusaders' 13 games. In addition, 20 players in all have earned at least one starting assignment on the season. Valpo will play at IPFW Tuesday.

UNBEATEN STREAK SNAPPED ON HEARTBREAKER
The Panthers saw their four-game unbeaten streak come to a heartbreaking end in their only game last week. They fell, 1-0, at UIC on a goal scored by the Flames with just 27 seconds remaining in regulation.

STANDING ON STANDINGS
This year, for the first time, only the top six teams in the Horizon League standings will advance to the league championship, making each league contest that much more important. The Panthers are currently in a log jam of five teams that have either eight or seven points (UWM has eight) and are in third place.

AGENT Cody Banks HAS IT ALL COVERED
Freshman Cody Banks had his hand in both scores for UWM against Loyola Oct. 10, assisting the first and netting the second. The last multi-goal game for Milwaukee (as a team) where one player had a hand in every goal was almost four seasons ago, when Neil Dombrowski scored all four goals in a 4-1 victory over Loyola.

OFFENSE COMING TOGETHER
The Panthers ended up scoring just one goal, but were a threat offensively all weekend long against Cleveland State and Detroit Oct. 2 and 4. They took 47 shots in the two games (24 against CSU and 23 against UDM), forcing opposing keepers to make 18 saves. That two-game shot total marks the most for UWM since recording 55 in games against IPFW (27 shots) and Lipscomb (28 shots) at the Panther Invitational in early September of the 2006 season.

FREE SOCCER
Milwaukee has been playing some tight games of late, leading to overtime against Wright State Sept. 27, Cleveland State Oct. 2 and Detroit Oct. 4. That marked just the third time in program history that the team has played three-straight OT matches. The last time it happened was in 1999, when games against Eastern Michigan, Marquette and Marshall went past regulation. The only other time it occurred was in 1992. UWM has never played in four-consecutive overtime matches in program history.

NEW ROLE = RESULTS
Junior Greg Rosenthal is taking a bigger role in offense this season and the results are already noticeable. Coming into the season, the team captain has taken 20 shots in 37 career games (an average of just over 0.5 a game) and scored one goal. In 2009, he currently is tied for first on the team with six points on two goals and two assists and has recorded 20 shots through 13 matches.

QUICK HITTER
When sophomore Ross Van Osdol opened the game against Cal State Northridge Sept. 13 with an early goal, it marked one of the fastest to start a game in recent seasons. The only two that have been scored earlier than his 92-second tally in the past six years are Travis Phillips' goal against Yale in 2007 (just 55 seconds in) and Dale Weiler's strike against Cleveland State in 2004 (90 seconds).

WHO SAYS PK'S ARE EASY?
The penalty kick save for freshman John Shakon against Butler Sept. 25 was the first of his career and came in his second opportunity to make a stop in the situation (Cal State Northridge converted earlier this season). It was the first for a UWM keeper since Ryan Germann had one against Butler Oct. 5, 2007. After stopping three of five from the end of 2006 through the 2007 seasons, opponents had converted four-straight before Shakon's stop on the Bulldogs.

THE YOUNG GUNS
Eric Frazier, Evan Bartzis and Ross Van Osdol made nice impressions in their first season, accounting for 11 of UWM's 17 goals on the year. If you look at the stats, five of Milwaukee's top six point producers in 2008 were freshmen or sophomores. Frazier had a team-high 16 points (6G/4A) while Bartzis was tied for second with six points (3G) with senior Adam Skalecki (2G/2A). Van Osdol (2G/1A) and then-sophomores Peter Sanger (2G/1A) and Robert Refai (1G/3A) tied for fourth with five points each.

TOP OF THE CHARTS
Speaking of Eric Frazier, one look at the scoring chart shows the production he helped bring to the offense last season. He led the team with 16 points in 19 games, a point total that ranked tied for seventh in the Horizon League (his six goals were seventh and four assists tied for10th). The 16 points were more than any Panther player recorded in 2007 and his four assists also topped the three helpers the 2007 team leader finished with.

His goal, assist and point totals were the highest for a UWM freshman since Antou Jallow scored 16 points in eight goals in 2001. His six goals were also the most for any UWM player since Neil Dombrowski had nine in 2005.

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 2009 campaign was 197-75-22, an impressive .710 winning percentage. With seven games on the home slate this fall, looks like UWM should be celebrating victory No. 200 on its storied home field at some point this season.
++No. 198: 1-0 (OT) vs. Detroit on 10/4/09++
++No. 199: 2-1 vs. Loyola on 10/10/09++

SENIOR LEADERSHIP
For the first time in recent memory, a large class of seniors will not be on the field for Milwaukee this fall. Just two seniors dot the roster in 2009, with Nicholas Gerard-Larson and Nkuti Ndely looking to close out their careers on a high note. UWM will definitely be a young squad this season. In addition to the two seniors, the roster features just five juniors. In total, 22 of the 29 student-athletes on the roster are sophomores (13) or freshman (9).

LEANING ON EXPERIENCE
This year's sophomore class definitely took advantage of the opportunity a year ago. One of the benefits that last season brought was the great amount of experience that the underclassmen were able to take in. Freshman accounted for 80 starts in the field last year, including three players that had 15 or more starts on the campaign. Overall, UWM returns 12 players that had six or more starts in 2008, including six that had 10 or more: sophomore Tony Maxey (18 starts), junior Greg Rosenthal (17), senior Nicholas Gerard-Larson (17), sophomore Eric Frazier (16), junior Peter Sanger (16) and sophomore Aaron Gibbons (10).

MORE WITH COACH COLEMAN
This season there will be a new weekly feature with UWM's head coach. Look for a weekly audio podcast of the "Jon Coleman Show", as we sit down weekly with Jon to revisit the week that was and talk about the upcoming schedule. The first episode was available Aug. 31 and will be followed with a new episode every Monday during the course of the 2009 campaign. The show is available as a link off the main UWM website page or directly at www.uwmpanthers.cstv.com/genrel/podcasts.

TIME WARNER TELEVISION SCHEDULE FOR 2009
The Panthers will have three of their games televised this fall on Time Warner Sports 32, beginning with the season opener against Marquette to be aired live. In addition to that contest, the Milwaukee games at Green Bay Oct. 30 and home against Wisconsin Nov. 5 will also be aired on TWC Sports 32. Matt Menzl and Sean Reti are scheduled to do all games. Replay dates and times of future games will be announced at a later date.

ON TAP
The Panthers close out the month of October with a big game at Green Bay. Game time against the Phoenix is set for 7 p.m. Friday night. The contest will be televised on TWC Sports 32.