After scoring only once in the first 180 minutes of their spring exhibition season, the UW-Madison men's soccer team exploded for five goals in a shutout victory over the UW-Milwaukee Panthers Wednesday.
Following a sluggish start in the first half, freshman Mark Roos found the back of the net in the 37th minute to get the Badgers on the board. Junior Pablo Delgado set up the play with a cross to fellow junior Brandon Miller, who touched it back for Roos.
The Badgers failed to score a goal the rest of the first half, but things started to open up in the second.
Delgado, who was all over the field setting up his teammates, helped start the barrage of goals in the second half. On a set piece in the 21st minute, Delgado struck the ball toward the goal, and it connected with junior Austin Nyquist's head on the way into the goal.
The scoring continued seven minutes later when junior Scott Lorenz scored off a rebound to make the score 3-0. It was another play that Delgado kept alive to give his teammates a scoring opportunity, and Lorenz had nothing but praise for the junior from Spain.
""Pablo's been having a great spring. Coach asked him to do a lot of defensive work, and I think that's brought his overall game up a level,"" Lorenz said. ""He's been asked to be a leader and he's really stepped into that role.""
One of the prettier goals of the game came in the 32nd minute when sophomore Austin Spohn drilled a shot from the top of the box after a well timed tap back from his teammate. Sophomore Cale Cooper added the fifth and final goal in the 39th minute to cap off a solid performance for the Badgers.
The Badgers remain undefeated in the spring exhibition season with a record of 2-0-1. First-year head coach Todd Yeagley credited his team's success so far to their hard training.
""The players are doing a great job. It starts with the everyday training environment and their approach, and we've challenged them to raise every part of their game and they're responding to it,"" Yeagley said. ""Now we're seeing results, we haven't given up a goal and we're starting to score.""
Yeagley spoke about changing the mentality of the team and improving its confidence heading into the fall season. It was something Roos and the rest of the team seemed to be buying into.
""Coach Yeagley is changing the whole mentality, and everyone's real excited. We got some more guys coming in in the fall, and everyone is excited about the upcoming season,"" Roos said.
Wednesday night's game stood in stark contrast to the first two contests of the spring season where the Badger offense seemed lackluster. The players say they did not do anything differently but that hard work in practice was finally starting to pay off.
""It's always the first one that's the hardest. Once you get that everything else kind of comes,"" Roos said. ""Against Illinois-Chicago we had 17 shots, but sometimes they just don't go in. Today they were going in.""
