Conway’s Late Goal Helps Panthers Draw
MADISON, Wis. - Evan Conway scored in the 89th minute to send the match to overtime, helping the Milwaukee men's soccer team finish the night with a 1-1 draw against Wisconsin Wednesday at McClimon Soccer Complex.
"It was a great finish," head coach Kris Kelderman said. "The guys kept plugging away, getting after it. We were pretty darn dangerous in the second half and got the momentum the last half of the game."
The Panthers (6-3-2) dominated the statsheet against the Badgers (5-4-2), earning the hard-fought draw against a UW team that had just knocked off the No. 5 team in the nation in its most recent outing.
"I thought we were going to get three points out of it tonight, but a point against the Badgers, in Madison, is pretty good," Kelderman said.
The final tallies were all in MKE's favor: shots (19-11), shots on goal (8-5) and corner kicks (11-6).
"We talked about it at halftime," Kelderman said. "I thought we were playing a little too conservative … a little too safe. I said 'we're down a goal, let's go play more positive soccer. Let's get forward, let's get after it.' Guys like to play that way and I think we are a better team when we have that aggressive attitude."
Milwaukee kept pushing late and finally found the equalizing goal, scoring at the 88:50 mark when Conway angled in a Francesco Saporito corner kick off his head into the upper 90 at the far post.
The Panthers dominated the extra periods as well, recording four of the five combined shot attempts.
They nearly pulled out the win in the final minute. Suad Suljic's free kick from the right wing almost went in the goal off a UW defender, hitting the post and rebounding back into play to avoid the own goal. The ball was then volleyed out of the air by Jackson Dryden, only to see his possible golden goal get cleared off the line by the last UW defender.
Freddy Lorenzen finished the night with four saves, including a diving save to his left off a cracking attempt just into the first overtime period.
Conway was finally rewarded at the end of regulation following a night of close calls.
In the 75th minute he created some space in the middle off a centering pass from Dryden, cracking his shot attempt off the right post. Cameron Williams had a chance at the rebound, sending his attempt wide right.
It was Conway again in the 53rd minute, sprung by a Sean Holmes thru ball. He turned it into a 1 on 1 with the goalie, who got enough of the chance to send it bouncing over the cross bar.
Vuk Latinovich had a chance on another Saporito corner kicks in the 60th minute, but a diving save by the UW keeper at the post thwarted the effort.
That all helped overcome a tough start to the night, with Wisconsin scoring on a header just six-plus minutes into the match.
Milwaukee didn't put a lot together on offense in the first half, with most of its shot attempts getting blocked inside the goal box. The lone on target shot came early, but Conway's header off service from Suljic was saved at the 12:01 mark.
Lorenzen recoded a pair of saves in the first half, each a tough effort to keep the score at 1-0. The first came on a thru ball in the 22nd minute, the other in the 32nd minute.
Up next, it's back to Horizon League play this weekend, traveling to Indianapolis to take on IUPUI. Game time is set for 6 p.m. CST.
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