The Wisconsin Badgers' men's soccer team wanted to make a strong statement going into the Big Ten season and that is exactly what they did. Senior midfielder Erol Goknur had a goal and an assist for the Badgers and freshman goalkeeper Jake Settle notched a shutout in his first career start in place of the injured senior, Eric Hanson as UW (5-5) took out the Illinois-Chicago Flames (5-3) by a score of 2-0 at McClimon Soccer Complex in Madison Wednesday night. Still, the team feels they have some things to work on.
\It was nice to get the win, but I don't think it's as complete a game as we could put together,"" Badgers Head Coach Jeff Rohrman said. ""I think we had too many technical breakdowns for a team of this caliber ... while it was a good game, I wouldn't say it was a great game, but we found a way to win it.""
For Goknur, it was his second career goal as a Badger and first career game winner. His assist was to junior midfielder Nick Van Sicklen, who scored his fifth goal of the year. Freshman defenseman Aaron Hohlbein and freshman midfielder John Scripp also added an assist apiece.
""Erol played well this last weekend,"" Coach Rohrman stated. ""He had a couple of great days in training. His mobility was great tonight, his concentration was great. A lot of guys are gonna take two touches to put that shot on goal and he took only one.""
The game started out in Wisconsin's favor with a lot pressure on both sides of the field. It took until the 27:09 mark in the game, though until a real threat would be put together. Scripp took a pass from Hohlbein from the left of the box and turned it into a cross which found Goknur right in front for the first goal of the evening.
""[Scripp] has been hitting well lately, so I just need to get on the end of those and put them away for him,"" Goknur said.
The score remained 1-0 into the second half when UIC started increasing the pressure. Their increase almost payed off when Flames leading goal-scorer senior forward Dennis King took a shot over Settle off a breakaway that was just barely high. The Badgers cashed in again just a few minutes later when Goknur left a pass 20 yards square to the goal for Van Sicklen to fire in at 68:25.
After the second goal it was time for the Badgers to play conservatively. The Flames nearly broke the shutout streak when Settle made a spectacular jumping save on King to knock the ball over the goal. The team settled down after the save and, eventually, pulled out the shutout.
""Those are my favorite saves to make,"" Settle said. ""When he hit that, I was like 'Sweet, that's my favorite save because it's just going back and it looks pretty cool'.""
""Jake did a great job,"" Coach Rohrman said. ""He had a great save on that one, a tremendous tip. And that's Jake's strength: he's quick, he's athletic, he's able to make those saves.""
With the win, the Badgers have reached .500 again for the season and have gained momentum going into Big Ten conference play. The team plays Ohio State at home on Sunday to start the conference portion of the schedule.
""They're a tough team to score on,"" Coach Rohrman said. ""We just have to continue to work ... just execute in the final third and take those two or three good chances and put them on goal.\
