MILWAUKEE, Wis. - Western Illinois dropped its opening match of the Panther Invitational Friday night (Sept. 2) to host team Milwaukee, 2-0. In the loss, Western suffered six yellow cards and one red card.

"We played well enough to be in the game tonight, we just couldn't finish," said head coach Eric Johnson. "They are a very talented team and their pressure took us out of our rhythm. We had three good chances in the game, two in the first and one in the second, but we didn't finish."  

A scoreless first half saw the Panthers out shoot the Leathernecks, 14-7. While none of WIU's shots were on goal, two of Milwaukee's were, both of which were stopped by senior captain and goalkeeper Andy Ryan.

The second half saw much of the same soccer as the two teams battled back-and-forth until Milwaukee broke the scoring drought with goal at the 75th minute (freshman Gerardo Saavedra), and followed up with another goal at the 83rd (senior Robert Refai) minute.

Milwaukee outshot the Leathernecks, 30-12. Senior midfielder Daniel Lewis led WIU with four shots.

In net, Ryan stopped six Panther shots and gave up two goals, while Milwaukee junior goaltender John Shakon finished with one save and a shutout.

The Leathernecks drop to 0-2-1 on the season, while the Panthers improve to 1-1-0 on the year.

With the loss, Western drops to 3-4-1 all-time against Milwaukee.

Coach Johnson talked a little bit about moving on from the loss and focusing on Marquette Sunday.

"Marquette has a really crafty and effective left-side so we will have to focus on stopping them. They played a great and exciting game earlier today in which they scored with 13 seconds left in the second overtime. Bottom line is we need to focus on finishing from here on out."

The Leathernecks (0-2-1) will finish the Panther Invitational Sunday at noon against the Marquette Golden Eagles (1-1). The Golden Eagles defeated Western Michigan in their first Panther Invitational match this afternoon, 3-2 in the second overtime period.