[media-credit name=’ERIN KEEFFE/Herald photo’ align=’alignright’ width=’336′][/media-credit]In dominating fashion, the Wisconsin men's soccer team (7-10-0, 1-4-0 Big Ten) defeated in-state rival UW-Green Bay (8-9-0, 3-4-0 Horizon) by a score of 3-0 Wednesday night in its final home match of the season at the McClimon Soccer Complex.

Despite suffering a goal-scoring drought earlier in the season when it tallied only one strike in five games, the team has rallied back as of late, scoring 13 goals in its past five matches.

"It feels great for us to come away with a good win and score some goals," head coach Jeff Rohrman said. "In the last five games, we've been able to put two or three goals in, so it's been great for the guys to see that we can get over that hump and we can put the ball in the net. I'm really happy for that."

Wisconsin took a very early lead in only the second minute of play following a beautiful through ball by sophomore Christopher Ede into the path of a streaking Victor Diaz. Instead of taking a shot, Diaz unselfishly threaded the needle into junior William Bagayoko's run, who calmly buried his shot into the left side of the goal.

Just 10 minutes later, the Badgers went up 2-0 on the Phoenix with a ripped shot by Diaz from 20 yards out into the lower-left corner of the net. Assisting on the goal was Ede again, bringing his total on the season to three. Diaz's strike brought his team-leading goal tally to six on the year.

"Victor was feeling it tonight," Rohrman said of the Spaniard's performance. "He was hitting the ball well, and he was showing great vision on his part. He was also showing some selfless play by playing it back across for William for the first goal. Victor had great composure finishing [his goal] off and played well for us tonight."

UW-Green Bay's best chance in the first half came in the fifth minute, when there was a miscommunication between Wisconsin defender Aaron Hohlbein and Badger goalkeeper Jake Settle. As Hohlbein tried to head the ball back to Settle, the ball floated over Settle's head, glazing the post before going out of bounds for a corner kick.

In the second half, the Badgers started off strong again, with Bagayoko grabbing his second goal of the match following some cheeky ball movement by his teammates. After Diaz sent a slicing pass to Erik Ortega, the sophomore laid the ball off to Bagayoko, who slotted it through the outstretched hands of UW-GB keeper Adam Stikl into the back of the net.

"My mind pretty much just went blank," Bagayoko said of his goals. "I was in good position for both [goals] — in both of them, the ball was coming to my right foot, so I just put it up and put it in."

After losing 2-0 to UW-Milwaukee a month ago, Wisconsin has since enjoyed a pair of 3-0 victories against Marquette University and UW-Green Bay in the remainder of its in-state matches.

"It feels good to win in your state," Bagayoko said. "We had a slip-up against UW-M and that was unfortunate, but to get good results against Marquette and UW-Green Bay is good for us."

Though Wisconsin was out-shot 11 to 10 and had two fewer corner kicks than UW-Green Bay, the Badgers made the most out of their opportunities by peppering the Phoenix goal and converting their chances.

"Our play was OK tonight," Rohrman said. "Thank goodness that we were efficient with our chances — we had 10 shots, and nine were on goal. In terms of quality of play, it was just an average night for us, but we made the most of our shots. We got them on goal and did well finishing them."

Wisconsin closes out its Big Ten season and regular season next Sunday against Northwestern before heading to the Big Ten tournament Nov. 10.