DAYTON, Ohio – The UIC men's soccer team (8-7-3) fought back from a 1-0 deficit to clinch a 2-1 victory over Milwaukee (8-8-3) in overtime on a goal scored by Oscar Gonzalez Thursday at Alumni Field. The win advanced the Flames to the Horizon League Championship match set for Saturday at 5 p.m. CT.

Saturday will mark the fifth time in program history that UIC has played in the championship final, with its last appearance coming in 2013. The Flames will be faced with No. 1 Wright State, who came away with a 4-0 win when the two teams met in the regular season. It will be the first ever title game featuring the two teams.
 
UIC outshot its opponent for the 13th time this season by an 18-6 margin. Gonzalez and Max Todd paced the Flames with five shots apiece, followed by Oscar Rivero with four, who additionally scored in the game. Todd (3), Gonzalez (2), Rivero and Jose Fuentes made up the seven shots on goal.
 
Andrew Putna went without making a save for the third-consecutive game and fourth time this season as it was the eighth time he was faced with less than 10 shots.
 
UIC controlled a majority of the possession in the first half and recorded six shots, with two coming in the first 15 minutes from Cristian Sanchez and Todd sent wide. The teams then went without a shot until Rivero put the ball just high and Todd had the lone shot on goal of the half when his header drew a diving save in the 37th minute.
 
Following another pair of looks for the Flames from Gonzalez and Rivero, Milwaukee made its push down the field as Evan Dujardin and Matthias Binder passed the ball off to Peter Raymonds, who took the Panthers' first shot of the game and sent it into the back of the net with 25 seconds to go for the 1-0 lead.
 
Milwaukee had the first attempt coming back from halftime but UIC followed with back-to-back shots from Fuentes and Todd that were stopped.
 
In the 74th minute, a foul committed by the Panthers positioned the Flames with a free kick from roughly 50 yards out straight away. Todd stepped up to take the kick and connected with the head of Rivero to put the ball away for the game-tying goal and his fourth tally of the season, with Todd getting his eighth assist.
 
Over the next 12 minutes, Milwaukee executed four shots all off the mark while UIC had a look from Gonzalez that was saved. The final three minutes of regulation presented the Flames with four shots from Rivero, Gonzalez, Alex Cervantes and Todd but all came up short.
 
It was all UIC in overtime as Todd forced a save three minutes in and Fuentes had an attempt shot just wide. In the 98th minute, Dimitris Strantzalis found Gonzalez to bury home the game-winner.