Nov. 3, 2001
Final Stats
Milwaukee, Wis. - After scoring two quick goals in the first half, the UIC soccer team couldn't maintain its lead as the Flames fell to the nationally ranked UW-Milwaukee Panthers, 3-2, Saturday afternoon in the final regular-season outing for both squads.
UIC falls to 10-5-1 overall and 4-2-1 in Horizon League action, while UW-Milwaukee improves to 16-3 on the year and 7-0 in league play.
The Panthers will be the Horizon League Tournament's #1 seed when post-season action begins next weekend.
Saturday afternoon, the Flames grabbed a quick 1-0 lead just 1:47 into the match as UWM was whistled for a foul in the box after hauling down UIC forward Jake Stasko (New Lenox, Ill./Licoln-Way). Head Coach Sasha Begovic elected Bruno Rasich (Lincolnwood, Ill./Niles West) to attempt the penalty kick and the junior midfielder connected to put his team up 1-0.
UIC then upped its lead to 2-0 less than 10 minutes later. Rasich crossed a corner kick into traffic in front of the UW-Milwaukee goal and the ball reached Jay DeMerit (Green Bay, Wis./Bay Port), who buried it past Panthers goalkeeper Chris Dadaian.
The Panthers, who improved to 8-0 at home with the win, played tentative early on, but picked up their play nearly 30 minutes into the match and put continued pressure on the Flames and goalie Jeff Kusiciel (Arlington Heights, Ill./Prospect) the remainder of the first half.
Just before the halftime break, UW-Milwaukee cut the UIC lead to one, 2-1, on Ian Hoelker's goal from 12 yards out.
The second half was all Panthers as they outshot the Flames 16-3 and simply outhustled UIC to ball after ball. In the 60th minute UW-Milwaukee's pressure paid off as leading scorer Ryan Seymour knotted the game at 2-2 as he finished off a crossing pass from Chad Dombrowski.
Marc Pehowski then tallied the game-winner less than five minutes later.
Kusiciel finished up the game with a season-high 10 saves while UWM goalkeeper Dadaian recorded three saves in the match.
Next up for the Flames is the Horizon League Tournament, which begins next Saturday, Nov. 10. UIC will learn its opponent and game time on Monday.
