On Wednesday, Oct. 13, the Oakland University men’s soccer team played an intense game against University of Wisconsin (UW)-Green Bay. With the ending score of 3-1, the Golden Grizzlies had their second straight league match win of the season. 

With both teams taking four shots on goal, OU had three saves compared to Green Bay’s single save on goal. In total, OU had nine corner kicks and Green Bay had four. OU had 11 fouls in total to Green Bay’s eight fouls. By the end of the game, Green Bay took 12 shots in total, and the Golden Grizzlies took 19 shots in total. 

The first half of the game started out intensely, with OU maintaining possession of the ball for a majority of the 45 minutes. Both teams began taking shots toward the beginning of the half, with OU having a memorable save. With the game intensifying on Green Bay’s half of the field midway through the first half, OU had four corner kicks, one right after another. An OU goal was not counted as the referee called offsides. At 44:44, OU’S Owen Smith scored the first goal of the game, assisted by Charlie Braithwaite and Noah Jensen, concluding the first half of the game. 

Starting off the second half of the game, Green Bay took a goal kick at the top of the half, which was saved by OU. Both teams took corner kicks toward the start of the second half, with Green Bay taking two and OU taking one. OU managed to hold onto possession of the ball for a good portion of the second half as well. There were more foul kicks in this half of the game compared to the first half of the game. 

The second half of the game ended with several goals scored in the last chunk of the game. At 72:53, OU’s Mikey Ketteman scored the second goal of the game, assisted by Robbie Cleary and Kai Garvey. Dylan Borczak scored OU’s third and final goal of the game at 87:18, which was assisted by Smith. In the last minute of the game at 89:29, Green Bay scored the last goal of the game, leaving the final score to be 3-1. 

“I thought we came out and played a really good first half. I think we got the ball in some dangerous positions,” OU Men’s Soccer Coach Eric Pogue said. “We had two or three goals called back for being a yard or two offsides so we were real close, but to be able to push through and get that goal in the waning seconds of the first half — I think was a big weight off our shoulders going into the first half.” 

Coach Pogue explained the team’s strategy going into the game: “We want to do whatever it takes to get a win. Winning games in this league is really difficult. Anything we could do today to win the game. This was a difficult game — Green Bay’s a difficult team. To play on a Wednesday at one o’clock where you’re not going to have as many fans out is difficult.”  

The next game for the men’s soccer team will be an away game on Saturday, Oct. 16 at 2 p.m. against Wright State University.