Green Bay men defeat Wisconsin

GREEN BAY, Wis. - The match-up with a Big Ten opponent coming off a huge conference win didn't seem to phase Wisconsin-Green Bay (10-1-2, 4-1-0) as they beat Wisconsin (3-6-2, 1-2-0) 1-0 Wednesday night.

"We're having a good season and it's not like we're intimidated playing them but it's definitely an energy boost for our guys to play an in-state rival like Wisconsin," said head coach Tom Poitras.

The contest started with five corner kicks in the first 3 minutes, but the Phoenix was unable to convert. On the defensive side of the ball, freshman goalkeeper Ryan Wehking (St. Louis, Mo.) made a huge save in the 16th minute, "We always tell our goalkeepers to make two to three big saves a game and he came through for us tonight. He's doing great for a freshman goalkeeper," said Poitras.

With just over six minutes to play in the first half Tony Walls (Wauwatosa, Wis.) had a good chance to score from in the box but Wisconsin keeper Alex Horwath was there for the save to keep the game scoreless at the break.

In the first half, Green Bay outshot Wisconsin 12-6 and 7-0 on corner kicks while Wehking had 4 saves.

Ten minutes into the second half Wisconsin's Bryan Gerster had an opportunity to give the Badgers the 1-0 lead but Green Bay's defense prevailed and Gerster's shot hit the top of the post.

"Defensively those guys have come a long way after being a little out of position in the beginning of the year but they've gotten very good," said Poitras.

With 17 minutes to play, Green Bay's Francois Basty (Beauzelle, France) scored his second goal of the season off a rebounded ball giving the Phoenix the 1-0 lead, "Francois is an opportunistic guy and he was in the right position to get us the goal," said coach Poitras.

Basty has come up big for the Phoenix this season as his first goal forced the tying result against Northwestern in the season-opener, "he's been knocking on the door a lot; he's had good chances and he's relied on his attacking skills from when he was a forward to help him," said Poitras.

The Phoenix finished the night outshooting Wisconsin 22-15 as Wehking finished with five saves.

Green bay will head to Valparaiso on Saturday for a conference match-up at 1p.m. and will then have a week off to prepare for Oral Roberts on Sunday, October 25 at Aldo Santaga Stadium.