Falls Soccer Team Wins Border Battle in a Shootout

The Menomonee Falls boys soccer team is one win away from advancing to the WIAA State Tournament quarterfinals after defeating the Germantown Warhawks in a game that was decided by a shootout Thursday at .

The top-seeded Indians (20-3-2, 5-2-0 Greater Metro Conference) were locked in a 1-1 tie with the fifth-seeded Warhawks (9-5-0, 5-2 North Shore Conference) after 100 minutes of regulation and overtime play.

The Indians scored on all four of their penalty kicks during the shootout. On the other side, Falls’ senior goalkeeper Cole Morris came up big with two pivotal diving saves that gave his team the 4-1 victory in the shootout. Nick Burgoyne, Elliott Saldivar, Skyler Hying and Aaron Patterson nailed the kicks for the Indians, with Patterson making the clincher.

The two penalty kick saves made by Morris Thursday night were likely his biggest of the year. Morris said he practices penalty kicks after every practice, and it’s his favorite post-practice drill.

“It wasn’t just me. Germantown played a great game; we just came up big in the end. I just guessed right,” Morris said. “We’re going to come out and play hard like we did tonight in the next round.”

The Indians will take on conference rival Brookfield East at 7 p.m. Saturday at Brookfield Central High School for a spot in the state tournament. The Indians defeated Brookfield East 1-0 during a regular season matchup on Aug. 23.

“It was a great result, we’ve struggled on a couple penalty kicks this year and missed a few during games. Unfortunately we let it get to penalty kicks, but we’ll take the win, survive, and move on,” said Indians head coach Scott Stein.

From the onset, the game had the makings of high scoring affair under the lights on a crisp and cold autumn evening. Just three minutes into the game, Saldivar fired a shot that bounced out of the hands of Germantown goalkeeper Steve Wittman. Saldivar was in the right position to clean up and netted the rebound to give Falls a 1-0 edge.

Ten minutes later, Germantown forward Paul Ciszewski took full advantage of an errant pass by a Falls defender, and tucked the ball into the bottom corner of the goal to tie the game 1-all in the 14th minute.

For the next 86 minutes, the Indians held the advantage in possession, kept the ball on the offensive half of the field, and had numerous free kicks and corner kicks. However, Germantown had an answer every time the Indians threatened to score, and used the long ball to reverse the field and create opportunities on the other end.

On two occasions, the crossbar aided the Warhawks after the Indians had worked the ball into the penalty box for a shot. In the 17th minute, Hying cracked a bouncer off the ground that ricocheted harmlessly off the bar and out of bounds.

The Indians, on the other hand, might have been saved by a couple missed calls by the referees, which could have led to penalty kicks. The Warhawks twice worked the ball into the penalty box, only to see the opportunity vanish after physical play by defenders. In overtime, a Germantown forward went on a break, but was knocked down hard inside the penalty box.

“I thought we should have had at least one penalty out of the two,” said Germantown head coach Omar Sethi. “I thought the referee overall did a pretty good job, but we deserved at least one penalty kick. On one occasion, it looked like the defender played the man and not the ball, and in the box that’s a penalty kick.”

The game did get a little chippy at times as players slid in hard and played a physical game. However, both coaches acknowledged that the field conditions were slick and muddy, which might have contributed to some leniency for physical play.