Box Score

The UW-Parkside men's soccer team had its season come to a close Wednesday night with a 3-1 loss at Lewis University. The Rangers finish the 2011 campaign with a record of 7-8-2 and 5-8-2 in the Great Lakes Valley Conference. Niklas Boedts scored on a penalty kick just before the half to tie the game but the Flyers scored two second half goals to go to 9-5-1 in the GLVC and will move on to the conference tournament.

"We had a lot of guys step into starting roles this season for the first time and they learned on a the job," said head coach Jason Zitzke. "I think we've earned a lot of valuable experience going forward."

Wednesday night was also the first time a team scored more than two goals against the Rangers all season. In fact, Parkside only gave up as many as two goals in two matches this year.

"For the most part this season our defense was spectacular," said Zitzke. "We gave up 11 less goals than we did last season and were as high as 20th in the nation. We wanted to get back to that tradition of being strong defensively and I think we made big strides towards doing that."
 
The Flyers applied the pressure early getting six shots in the first ten minutes to set the tone. Lewis outshot Parkside 12-6 in the half and 24-14 on the night.
 
They took the lead in the 35^th minute when they converted a Ranger turnover into a goal. Aloisio Barros finished from 12 yards out on a pass from Cristhian Ramirez.
 
Parkside would get the match back to even with just 26 seconds left in the first half. The Flyers committed a foul in the box allowing Boedts to take the penalty kick. He buried it for his fourth goal of the year and gave the Rangers some momentum heading into the break.
 
Unfortunately they were unable to maintain that momentum coming out as the Flyer retook the lead just 4:37 into the half. Robens Decius scored his fourth goal of the season on a cross from Niall Hoban.
 
The Rangers came back quickly and put a part of shots on Alec Pickett but were unable to earn the tying goal. Lewis then was able to build a cushion when Barros and Ramirez hooked up again in the 75th minute to make it 3-1.
 
Parkside got the next five shots, including two on net, but Pickett was able to stop them and secure the win for the Flyers.
 
Nick Huftalin took the defeat for the Rangers as he stopped six shots. The redshirt freshman finished the year with 41 stops and a 0.87 goals against average. Jon Gourlay was the team's leading scorer with seven goals and 16 points. Boedts finished his career with 59 points and now ranks 20th on the school's career list.

"Next year we need to find some guys that can come in and put the ball in the net and help us get over the hump, whether it be from inside the program or some newcomers," said Zitzke. "We were in every game this season and took steps in the right direction. We've got to find a way to turn all those one goal losses into wins.