In a game that will be remembered as much for the powerful winds and stinging rain as it will be for the play on the field, the Wisconsin men’s soccer team avenged three straight losses to the UW-Green Bay Phoenix with a 3-0 win at the McClimon Complex Wednesday.

A history full of even contests between the two teams has steadily turned the annual matchup into one of UW’s (5-6-3, 1-2 Big Ten) biggest rivalries over the years. Many of the current crop of UW players have never beaten a Green Bay (2-9-3, 0-3-2 Horizon) team while playing for the Badgers – a statistic that provided more than enough motivation for Wisconsin in their preparation for the game.

“Any time you play an in-state rival, you throw out the records,” head coach John Trask said. “There is a lot of pride in these in-state rivalry games, whether it’s us against Marquette, Milwaukee or Green Bay. … There is no question they came here to beat us or at least get a result, and we stepped up to the plate.”

Following its first win of the Big Ten season Saturday against Michigan, Wisconsin came into Wednesday’s game with one goal in mind: to keep the ball rolling.

After dominating the possession early in the first half, it seemed only a matter of time before a Badger score would follow. Sure enough, in the 25th minute, senior forward Jerry Maddi got the goal UW needed.

When junior midfielder Nick Janus played the ball to Maddi 12 yards out from the goal, just inside the penalty area, Maddi cut the ball back toward the middle and finished a confident strike, just inside the far post.

“We were getting a lot of good chances slipping balls in behind their center backs and outside backs,” Maddi said. “I decided I was going to cut it back and see what the goal offered me. I cut it back and saw the goalie left the back post open, so I aimed for the back.”

The goal was only the senior’s second goal in his career at Wisconsin – his first coming against Cleveland State Sept. 29 – after he transferred from Eastern Illinois University before the 2011 season.

Now, with two goals in less than a month, Maddi has hit a good run of form at a critical time for a team that, just a week ago, seemed destined for a disappointing finish to its 2012 campaign.

“A second goal definitely builds my confidence,” Maddi said. “Individually I’m playing better; I’m getting good minutes since my last goal, but more importantly for the team, each time I’ve gotten a goal we have won and that is important.”

“This is the right time to get hot, so hopefully we can continue this heading into our next game.”

Brimming with confidence and holding onto a one-goal lead heading into halftime, Maddi and company continued the second half like they started the first and added two more tallies to the score sheet before the game had finished and the final whistle was blown.

In another combination of good passes in the 51st minute, this time Maddi would play the role of distributor.

With junior defender David Caban rushing up the field to help on offense, Maddi picked out the charging defender with a cross to the top of the box, making the one-touch finish an easy one for Caban’s first goal of the season.

“I was going to shoot, but at the last second Caban called for it and that late run is always open,” Maddi said. “He made the best of it and put it on goal. In these wet conditions, we knew it would go in.”

While the game started out on a calm fall night, serenity was quickly replaced by a torrential downpour early in the first half of the game. Although the players would continue to fight on throughout the game, it was hard to ignore the impact the weather had on the quality of the game.

On the final and third goal of the game for the Badgers, sloppy play by one of the Phoenix defenders on a field saturated with water resulted in an open net tap-in score for Janus in the 75th minute.

The defense silently played its part in the dominating win as well, earning its third shutout of the season and giving up few good scoring chances to its in-state opponents.

“We got the shutout so it was good all-around I thought,” junior goalkeeper Max Jentsch said. “The defense was going into tackles hard and making good plays. I thought we adjusted well to the conditions too. It was a good all-around performance for us.”

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