The Milwaukee Cup showdown at Englemann Field between the Panthers and the Marquette Golden Eagles ended with no victor. After a late goal to tie the game by the visitors, the teams went into overtime, a period in which both came up empty and the game ended in a 1-1 tie. A record crowd of 4,030 were on hand. Kelderman spoke after the stalemate, commending the effort from his young team.
“It was an awesome environment and the crowd was outstanding,” he said. “You can’t beat that. I would have loved to have gotten a win and a reward for the fans coming out, but couldn’t be more proud for my players.”
“We have a very young group,” he continued. “We started seven freshmen and to throw them into a mix like this, an environment like this, is tough to do. I thought the overall performance was very good.”
This was only the fourth tie in the 42-year-old rivalry in which Milwaukee holds a sizable lead, 28-11-4. Both teams are now 1-1-1.
photo: mkepanthers.com
One of the newcomers, New Zealand-native and forward Tinashe Marowa, scored the Panther goal in the first half off of an assist from fellow freshman Matthias Binder. Kelderman gave some insight on the first half.
“The first 25 minutes I was very pleased,” he said. “I thought we created some chances and I thought for sure we’d get a second goal. Unfortunately, we didn’t. We had to be a little sharper on the final pass or the final shot.”
Later in the game, at the 73rd minute, Marquette evened the score on a goal from Louis Bennett II, the son of the Golden Eagles’ head coach. In addition, MU goaltender Luis Barraza made two key saves to preserve the tie, one near the end of regulation and one in overtime.
Marowa nearly made the goal that would have won the Panthers the game twice. Once was very early in the game on an attempt that went just wide and the other was an overtime attempt that ricocheted off of an Eagles player to go wide left. Another wide-left attempt, this one from Binder, ended the OT period.
The game was not just even on the scoreboard. Both teams finished with 17 total shots and seven corner kicks. Kelderman finally commented on the aura at Englemann surrounding the city rivalry.
“It’s a great environment for the players and fans alike and I thought the brand of soccer was good,” he said. “Especially this early in the year… it was an exciting evening.”
Milwaukee continues its season on Sunday, September 6, when it hits the road for a showdown vs. Bradley at 1 p.m.