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!