2008 Soccer Season
The UW Fox Valley Cyclones finished the season 14-2-1. They lost in the state championship to perennial powerhouse Madison Area Technical College. The Cyclones took first place, in the early season UW Fond Du Lac tournament, with a 3-1 record. They edged out UW Rock County for the championship by scoring 2 more goals in the tournament.
The season started by playing last year’s conference champions and state runner up UW Waukesha. It was a steady rain for the entire game. Waukesha was led by all state goalie, Ben Jaskot. Waukesha scored the first two goals of the game. The Cyclones got one back, at the end of the first half, to only be down 2-1. Fox managed to tie the game up in the second half. The two teams went into overtime and Kyle Seemeyer scored four minutes into the 1st over time to end the game.
UW Fox rolled from there, winning their games over Baraboo and Fond du Lac. They ran into a very tough UW Rock team, in Janesville. Fox managed to score first in the second half, off of a set play from 25 yards out. Fox answered with a Penalty Kick later in the second half and then were helped to a 2-1 lead off of an own goal by the Cyclones. Rock’s super forward, Mike Strieker added a third goal, with fox pushing up to, to secure the victory for UW Rock and hand UW fox only its second defeat in WCC conference play in 2 years.
The Cyclones shook off the loss and got back on track with a win versus Sheboygan. Grant Larie scored a hat trick and Fox started back on the winning road. The beat Richland county in a non conference game and then rattled off two more wins, one versus a tough UW Washington County team and against a pesky UW Marathon team. The final two wins secured UW Fox a second place seeding in the conference tournament.
The conference tournament saw a 1st round rematch between UW Fox and UW Marathon County. Fox shut out Marathon for a 1st round win. They then had to face UW Waukesha for a second time. UW fox was up to the challenge beating the 3rd seeded UW Waukesha team 3-0. That shut out gave converted goalie Keegan Bolstad eight shut outs for the season.
UW Fox had volunteered to host the conference championship the previous season, So when the third meeting between UW Rock and UW Fox took place, it was on the Cyclones home field. Rock scored first, in the game, by taking a ball from the defender and scoring on a breakaway. Fox managed to tie it up with a ball crossed in front of the goal then head back across the goal and then headed into the net. That tied the game, 1-1 at the end of the 1st half. The winning goal was scored off of a set play from twenty yards out. Matt Stori passed a hard ball across the ground to Joe Drexler who took once touch to control it and a second touch to shoot and score, giving the Cyclones the tournament championship and a trip to the state finals.
UW Fox players also received end of the year awards from their teammates and the Conference.
Stephen Fuhrman – Team Defensive MVP
Keegan Bolstad – Most Improved Player
Mike Tritt – Co-Heart Award
Nick Wire – Coaches Award
Kyle Seemeyer – Co-Offensive MVP, 1st Team WCC All Conference (2nd Award)
Grant Larie – Co-Offensive MVP, 1st Team WCC All Conference (2nd Award), WCC Player of the Year (2nd Award)
Matt Stori – 1st Team WCC All Conference,
Joe Drexler – 2nd Team WCC All Conference, Co-Heart Award