Wisconsin schools 2, NIU 0.

Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s Bobby Lish and Kyle Lance went on the offensive against the Huskies (0-2-0) Friday in a 2-0 loss. NIU also lost 1-0 to Wisconsin (1-1-0) on Sunday in the final day of the Rocky Rococo Classic.

In Steve Simmons’ first regular season game as coach, NIU fell behind just 26 seconds into the match, as Lish scored on Lance’s throw-in for a 1-0 lead.

The Huskies held strong on defense but were not able to find the Panthers’ net the entire game.

It was déjà vu for NIU when Lish and Lance connected on another throw in at 43:21 in the first half for the final score of the game.

“Wisconsin-Milwaukee is a good team; a tournament-caliber team,” Simmons said. “This was good for us to see and measure ourselves by a team like this. I’m very happy with our performance.”

In its second shutout of the weekend, NIU allowed Wisconsin to score 10:24 into the match and the teams played scoreless soccer the rest of the way.

The Huskies were able to get off 11 shots on the Badgers, an improvement over the four they got against the Panthers.

“This was a well-fought match today,” Simmons said. “We’re doing a lot of good things. So we’re not pleased with the result in terms of wins and losses, but we have a lot to hang our hats on after this first weekend.”

NIU’s freshman forward Kevin Woerner and senior defender Jason Sullivan made the all-tournament team. WMU’s Lish was named Most Valuable Offensive Player.

“We had them reeling toward the end and I thought we’d get one,” Simmons said. “But it just wasn’t our day today. I’d like to play them a few more times, because we were right there today.”