The UWM Men’s soccer team struggled offensively Wednesday night as they lost to the Oakland University Golden Grizzlies 2-0 at Engelmann Stadium.
The Grizzlies started the scoring off early when junior forward Shawn Claud Lawson scored his second goal of the season in the third minute. The early goal was assisted by fellow junior Raphael Reynolds, giving him his first assist of the year. Claud received the ball in between two Panther defenders and then drilled a one-timer past Panther goalkeeper Liam Anderson giving the Grizzlies the early 1-0 lead.
Panther head coach Kris Kelderman was disappointed in his team’s effort to start off the game and talked about how the Panthers have become accustomed to trailing to their opponents early on in games.
“We’ve seen this situation more than I’d like this year,” Kelderman said. “We gave up a goal early on off a set piece, but there’s plenty of time to make up for that and we have to do a better job.”
The ball remained on the Panther’s side of the field the majority of the first half as Oakland recorded eight shots in the first 45 minutes while the Panthers were only able to create four. The first half ended with UWM still trailing 1-0
UWM came out of halftime on the attack and almost tied the game up in the 48th minute when freshman Nick Moon had his shot attempt from outside the penalty area saved by Oakland goalkeeper Wes Mink.
Senior midfielder Laurie Bell had the next opportunity at goal with a free kick in the 55th minute. Bell’s kick from 25 yards out looked promising, but ended up missing just over the cross bar.
The third attempt for the Panthers to even the score came once again from Moon. Moon won the ball on the left side of the box and fired a shot aiming for the far post. Unfortunately for Moon and the Panthers, the shot ended up just inches wide of the post.
The Grizzlies delivered the knock out blow in the 71st minute when Lawson netted his second goal of the game off of a through ball from senior Gavin Hoy.
Oakland posted their fourth straight shut out and fifth straight win bringing their overall record to 5-5-1 and 4-0-1 in Horizon League play. The Grizzlies played a tough non conference schedule and coach Kelderman noted that as a reason to their recent success.
“It looks like they’ve learned from their tough matches and have grown as a team,” he said. “At the end of the day Oakland was much sharper than us, I give them a lot of credit.”
Tonight’s loss drops the Panthers overall record to 4-8-2 and 1-3-1 in conference play. Their next game takes place on Saturday as they travel to Illinois to take on the UIC Flames.