The Milwaukee men’s soccer team took a trip down to DeKalb on Wednesday night to take on the Northern Illinois University Huskies and ended up leaving with a 1-0 victory.
In speaking with freshman forward Trey Goodnetter, he expressed his thoughts on the early minutes of the game.
“In the first 20 [minutes] they had a few early chances, but we mostly dominated the game,” said Goodnetter. “We had a really nice goal by Jaime Colin, but overall we outplayed them more than 1-0, and probably should’ve put a few more away.”
After NIU’s aggressive start, the Panthers responded by taking control very quickly. Evan Conway took a hard shot on goal in the 21st minute, but NIU managed to make a tough save, making the ball ricochet into the air. Two consecutive fouls hurt Milwaukee early on, causing them to lose a bit of momentum. Spirits shifted as Jaime Colin found the net for the first and only goal of the night, with a beautiful upper 90 shot in the 28th minute. The Panthers controlled the ball on the offensive end for quite some time in the first half, but were deterred by two offside calls in the 38th and 39th minutes. Toward the end of the half, the Huskies advanced to Milwaukee territory looking to score, but to no avail, as the Panthers led 1-0 at the half.
The Huskies started off the second half with the ball. They proceeded with physicality, and the Panthers responded with similar force. That strategy didn’t pay off for the Panthers, picking up some costly fouls early in the half. The second half was riddled with shots on goal by Milwaukee, but none ended up connecting for points on the board. It was a choppy 45 minutes of soccer, full of substitutions and penalties. NIU’s Huskies tried to find some offensive success, but the Panther defense held up with relentless effort. Milwaukee pulled off the 1-0 win over the Northern Illinois Huskies.
It was a win like no other for Goodnetter and the rest of the Panthers.
“Whenever we play NIU we play for the Le Wang Trophy, so we won that back,” said Goodnetter.
Another tally in the win column puts Milwaukee at 3-3-2 on the season. All around, it was a great win for Milwaukee.
The men’s soccer team is back at Engelmann Stadium this Saturday at 7 p.m. CST for a meeting with the UIC Flames. It’s going to be a hot one.