HIGHLAND HEIGHTS, Ky. - The Milwaukee men's soccer team built a commanding 3-1 lead and then held off Northern Kentucky University to claim a 3-2 victory Saturday night at NKU Soccer Stadium.
 
The Panthers (2-3-1, 1-1 Horizon League) scored a goal just after intermission to take momentum from the Norse (0-6-1, 0-2 Horizon League), eventually building a 3-1 advantage before securing the important Horizon League road victory.
 
"It's our first conference win so it's something we are very excited about," Milwaukee head coach Kris Kelderman said. "The comeback against Marquette gave us a boost of confidence that the guys needed. I feel like we have turned the corner. Tonight was a nice performance and a good win."
 
Scoreless until well into the first half, Milwaukee struck first at the 32:03 mark. Evan Conway was at it again, scoring the first goal of the night on a header off a perfect cross from Francesco Saporito. After tallying a pair of goals against Marquette in the "Milwaukee Cup" midweek, Conway buried his third of the season into the back of the net to give UWM the lead.
 
"We got off to a good start the first 20 minutes, created a couple of nice opportunities where I felt we should have scored," Kelderman said "I was pleased with the result and the way we played. It was a pretty good first-half performance. In the second half we scored two goals and we went up 3-1 and all three goals were very nice scores."
 
The Norse answered relatively quickly, making it a new game at 1-1 at the 36:58 mark on a penalty kick by Johannes Jansen. That was the way the game would go into the halftime intermission.
 
Milwaukee struck quickly to open the second half. Less than a minute into the period, Sean Reynolds netted his first goal of the season, finding in the bottom right corner of the goal off a nifty assist from Nick Moon to give UWM the 2-1 advantage.
 
Back-and-forth from there, it was Saporito again, this time on one of his well-placed free kicks, tallying his second of the year on a blast from the center of the field from 28 yards to make it 3-1 and give Milwaukee apparent control of the contest with just over 10 minutes remaining in the match.
 
NKU would not go away, getting one back at the 81:49 mark to make it a one-goal contest down the stretch. The UWM defense did well the rest of the way, fending off a pair of corner kicks and a pair of shots to get back to .500 in league play with the important road conference win.
 
The statistics were close to even, with both teams finishing with 11 shots apiece. The Panthers ended with the slim 4-to-3 advantage in shots on goal, while the Norse earned seven of the 11 corner kicks on the night and were whistled for 19 of the 29 fouls.
 
The offense was spread for UWM, with Reynolds, Moon and Reid Stevenson all accounting for two shots to lead the way. Sam Glass was the starter in goal, earning the victory while recording just a single save.
 
Up next, the Panthers return home with another trophy on the line, welcoming Northern Illinois to Engelmann Stadium Wednesday in the annual battle for the LeWang Trophy. Game time against the Huskies is set for 7 p.m.