The Wisconsin Badgers (6-6-0) evened their record after a thrilling 1-0 victory over in-state rival UW-Milwaukee (7-4-0), in front of a capacity crowd in Milwaukee. Goalkeeper Eric Hanson returned to the UW lineup after missing the last two games with an injury. He made an outstanding save in the second half to keep the Panthers off the scoreboard en route to another shutout. While UWM was wearing orange jerseys to be auctioned off for charity, they did not by any means give this game away to UW. The Badgers had to fight from start to finish.

UWM started the chilly but sunny match off with a strong offensive attack. The Panthers’ first scoring chance came only minutes into the match. UWM standout Antou Jallow took a shot off good Milwaukee passing, but missed. One minute later UWM had a cross into the box which led another shot, but once again the ball did not find the back of the net.

“They came out real strong right from the kick,” UW freshman defender Aaron Hohlbein said. “Throughout the middle, I think, we stepped it up a little. We came out not as hard as they did in the first half, and then we put it on and weathered their storm and got through it.”

In the thirteenth minute, Panther forward Bobby Lish, sporting an orange Mohawk, blasted a shot on goal from 25 yards out. Hanson tipped the ball over the goal, which led to a Panther corner kick. A header attempted on the corner, just missing the upper left corner. UWM was strong in the beginning of the half, but the tide shifted as the half progressed.

At 39:03 into the match, the Badgers scored the game’s only goal. UW’s Nick Van Sicklen dribbled through a number of Milwaukee defenders in Milwaukee’s half of the field and passed to teammate David Martinez. Martinez’s shot hit the upper right corner of the goal and put the Badgers up 1-0. Martinez came into the match because senior captain Erol Goknur got blasted in the face by a ball early in the fist half and was a little disoriented.

The first half ended with UWM putting a ball in goal, but after the horn had sounded, the score remained 1-0.

Milwaukee had a number of chances to score in the second half. The most dramatic came with 20 minutes left. Milwaukee’s Tighe Dombrowski put a head on goal, from a cross, which looked like a sure thing to tie up the contest. Hanson made a spectacular one-handed save on the low shot.

“Probably one of the best collegiate saves I’ve seen. He was going back the wrong way, then he checked back and he flicked the ball out,” said UWM head coach Louis Bennett. “How he kept it out and kept it away from our own rushing players was phenomenal. It was a great save, that was a game-winning save … that was the play of the match.”

UWM ended with a strong offensive attack just like the beginning of the match, but when the final whistle blew, the Badgers came out on top.

“I told the guys before the game to focus and concentrate on playing a complete game,” said UW head coach Jeff Rohrman. “I think they would agree that we’ve done that in some, and haven’t done it in some. Today we got about as close as we could in playing a complete game. I have to give our guys credit; UWM is a great team. For us to come in here to their place and walk away with the victory is a real credit to the guys. They earned it, they worked their tails off and I’m proud of them.”

“[UWM] came to our home field last year and won 1-0, kind of embarrassed us and danced on our field,” said Hanson. “We said ‘that’s not going to happen this year.’ We came in and we beat them — solid performance all the way around. It’s the best feeling … first game back, started out a little shaky, had a few blenders. But when I had to, I came up with the big saves. I’m real excited.”

UW finished with nine shots and eight corners, while UWM had 13 shots and 10 corners. Both teams had nine fouls, one yellow card for UWM and three for UW, and each goalie collected six saves.

UWM head coach Luis Bennett was disappointed that the Panthers were unable to gain the victory against the in-state rival.

“I don’t think we had the final touch. We had some fantastic opportunities … we had a couple key players that just weren’t up for the game today, and that happens in soccer. I’m not going to say it doesn’t. Does it sting because it’s against [UW]? Yeah, and does it sting because they’re in a different place than us right now? The expectations of us beating them are there. I’m not going to lie to you; our expectation is to beat in-state teams. We’re the team to beat, and this is one that I would say got away from us. All credit to them.”