The Panthers have six games scheduled for the spring season, which began on April 1. Assistant coach Ben Shepherd will again take time to report on how each match went.
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Sunday saw the team travel down to Indiana to play IUPUI, which is a solid NCAA D-I program that is always strong at home and that was shown again last year with a 5-2 record on their own field.
The trip started early for the boys, as we had to leave Milwaukee at 7:30 a.m. to arrive in time for a 3 p.m. EST kick-off which meant it was important that the boys had a good thorough warm-up in order to start the game in the right fashion.
Due to injury and illness, we were down to the 'bare bones' so to speak, and only had two outfield player subs which meant that a few players had to play in unaccustomed positions, which they were all willing to do for the betterment of the team. Although the pitch was extremely difficult to play on and wasn't conducive to intricate play, we still maintained our way of playing and attempted to build off of our last two wins.
In the first half, we had the majority of possession and were in control of the game with Kyle Neumann and James Ashcroft going close with headers and shots from Laurie Bell, Kevin Ferron, Jamie Bladen and Cody Banks were not far off target. Defensively, we were very solid and IUPUI rarely threatened our goal and was limited to no shots on goal in the first half, but our dominance was not rewarded with a goal and so we had to settle for a scoreline of 0-0 at halftime.
In the second half, we started sluggishly and within the first five minutes IUPUI were awarded a penalty which they converted to undo all our good play as we found ourselves trailing by 1-0. However, to give our guys credit from this point on we really took the game by the scruff of the neck and dominated for the rest of the match and after some good play Cody Banks was hauled down in the box to earn us a penalty of our own. He duly dispatched with confidence to notch his fourth goal in three games.
We continued to push forward and Kevin Ferron went close, along with Cody Banks before our pressure finally told as Kyle Neumann was slipped through inside the box and he unselfishly squared the ball across goal for Kevin Ferron to slide home for his second goal in three games to make the final score 2-1.
Although the game was slightly scrappy due to the playing surface, we were happy with our overall performance in that we were in control of the game from start to finish even after going behind, and the pleasing aspect was how we responded and continued to push forward to get the right result.
There were good performances from Robbie Boyd, who had to fill in at right back, Riley Weiner returning from injury was excellent and really worked hard for the team and showed moments of real quality, and Zach Stevenson continued his good form and was probably our best all round player on the day!! Our attention now turns to the Wisconsin Cup, where we will play Marquette at Valley Fields this Sunday at 9:30 a.m. and then later in the day either Madison or Green Bay, which will conclude our Spring Season. So, we look forward to seeing as many of you as possible at the game and appreciate the continued support!!!
