MILWAUKEE - James Ashcroft started the scoring early in the contest and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee men's soccer team kept it up from there in handing Cleveland State University a 5-0 defeat Saturday evening at Engelmann Stadium.

Ashcroft, one of eight seniors playing on "Senior Night", headed in the eventual game-winner in the 15th minute. Juniors Luke Goodnetter and Laurie Bell would find the back of the net, as would freshmen Kostas Kotselas and Beau Laufer as UWM clinched second-place and a bye in the first round of the Horizon League Tournament with the lopsided victory.

"It's an exciting night," Milwaukee head coach Kris Kelderman said. "We wanted to win this for a couple of reasons. One is that it was Senior Night. We had a good performance from those guys and we were able to get everybody on the field and that is exciting. On top of that we played very well - we got the result we were gunning for, we are assured the two spot in the conference tournament and we go in with momentum. The performance was excellent - I have no complaints on the evening."

Ashcroft and Bell finished with a goal and assist each, with Bell upping his league-leading totals to 12 goals and 28 points on the season. Junior Rami Younes added a pair of assists to up his season total to seven, good for second place in the conference.

Ashcroft headed in the first goal at the 14:57 mark to get UWM on the board. Goodnetter made it 2-0 for the Panthers headed into intermission with his second goal of the season at the 30:34 mark. The defense was again impressive, with freshman goalkeeper Liam Anderson coming up with four saves to help secure the eighth shutout of the season.

"Defensively, we have had a great year," Kelderman said. "Starting with our keeper, to the back line, to our team defense, we have been outstanding this year. It's a tough evening for Cleveland State. They are a very good team and I don't know if the result tonight was important to them based on where they are situated [in the standings], but we got it done."

The offense did not let up in the end. Bell scored his league-leading 12th goal on a pretty free kick in the 78th minute and then forced a turnover and assisted Kotselas in the 85th to make it 4-0.

Laufer also netted a nice goal on a volley, assisted by sophomore Patrick Ruhland and senior Kevin Ferron to round out the scoring at the 88:58 mark.

After not scoring five goals in a game since 2004, the Panthers have now accomplished the feat twice this season (they scored five against Detroit), with the five-goal margin of victory the most since defeating Cleveland State by an 8-0 tally in the league postseason at the end of the 2002 campaign.

For the game, UWM recorded advantages of 17-to-11 on shots - 9-to-4 in shots on goal - with each team forcing three corner kicks.

With the regular season in the books, Milwaukee can now turn its attention to next week's Horizon League Tournament as the No. 2 seed. The 13 victories is the most for a UWM team since winning 14 in 2005, the last season the team finished this high in the standings.

Not bad for a team that had not won more than six games in the previous six seasons before Kelderman took the helm a year ago.

"We feel very good," Kelderman said. "It's an exciting time for the program. To kind of sit back and reflect with it being Senior Night. We have eight guys that have had outstanding careers. They have had some ups, some downs, it's been an exciting season. The seniors have stepped up and been a big part of that and it's great to end the regular season the way we did."

As the second seed, Milwaukee will have a bye along with top-seeded UIC from the first round, which will be played next week Tuesday. The Panthers next contest will be in Chicago Friday, taking on the highest remaining seed from the first round contests.

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