Monday, October 17, 2011

Coming Down the Stretch

Aaron Gibbons, a senior on the 2011 Milwaukee men's soccer team, will be blogging all season long on the UWM website. Today is his eighth entry of the year.

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Following our tie to Detroit, this week’s practice was intense in preparation for the upcoming match, where we would face Wright State - a match that was pivotal in the leagues standings. Saturday night at Engelman Stadium we sat at the top of the league, tied with our opponents.

In front of a packed Engelman Stadium, the match proved to be a fast-paced and full of highlights. The first half was not our best performance, as we went into halftime down. Rejuvenated after a mental check, we quickly got onto the scoreboard in the second half. Senior Robert Refai tallied his 7th goal on the season, continuing his scoring form on the year. Freshman Laurie Bell also tallied his second goal of the year.

The tie was not our preferred result, but coming back in the second half and scoring two vital goals really showed some character. As we get deeper into conference each game becomes more and more important as we strive to reach our ultimate goal of winning conference and making it to the NCAA tournament.

Our next opponent is yet another conference match facing Valparaiso on October 22nd. Hopefully we will be able to come out with another conference win and return home with an important three points.

Monday, October 10, 2011

Mid-Conference Action

Aaron Gibbons, a senior on the 2011 Milwaukee men's soccer team, will be blogging all season long on the UWM website. Today is his seventh entry of the year.

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The last few weeks have been productive for the Panthers, as we are now into mid-conference play. There have been a few valleys to go along with some key peaks on the season that left us at the top of the tables in Horizon League standings.

Our victory over Green Bay was one of the most exciting wins the program has ever witnessed, as junior Cody Banks scored with seven seconds left in double overtime to give us the win over our in-state rivals Green Bay.

The win was only the second of my career against Green Bay and was a fantastic way to regain the Chancellor’s Cup. Now with two cup wins under our belts and two instate victories, leaves only Wisconsin left on the schedule before we are crowned the state’s best.

As conference play moved along we did take a step backwards, as we lost to Cleveland state 3-to-2. The game was not our best performance, as we went down three to zero late in the match. Some positives did come with the loss though, as we fought hard and scored two late goals that lead to an extremely exciting ending.

The next match against Michigan State ended in similar form with a decent performance that just could not get the job done. Senior Robert Refai scored the lone goal of the match for the Panthers.

His sixth goal on the season came in our most recent match facing Detroit. With this sixth goal he solidified himself as the team’s top scorer as well as one of the league leaders.

The road to the conference tournament has begun for the Panthers, as we are now sitting in second place. We will look to continue our success into the season when we face Wright State on November 15th this upcoming Saturday at Engelmann Stadium.

Hope to see you all there!