KALAMAZOO, Mich. – The Western Michigan University men's soccer team earned two points on Monday afternoon with a 2-1 victory over the New Hampshire Wildcats.

The Broncos pushed through a chippy battle with New Hampshire to celebrate Labor Day at The Farm on Monday. WMU had its first multi-goal game of the season with second half scores from forwards Jonathan Stout and Roni Sylejmani. Also earning points in the match was forward Piero Sabroso with an assist on Sylejmani's game-winning goal.

"Winning a college soccer game is tough, and we'll certainly take this one," said Head Coach Chad Wiseman after the win. "The boys deserve it on the day. We had a pretty good performance up at Wisconsin last week. And with today being Bronco Soccer Fest, the community has come out and stayed for the match. And in the second half we put on a really good performance."



The Wildcats started the game quickly on offense, forcing the Western Michigan defense into its own zone for the first five minutes. The Broncos had their first opportunity at the net from Stout, who put a shot in the right corner from just in front of the six. It would be over 26 minutes until WMU had another offensive opportunity as the fouls and yellow cards kept coming for both sides. In the first half alone both teams combined for nine fouls and five yellow cards.

It was forward Connor Burkett who got Western Michigan back on the offensive end with a shot that went just wide of the net in the 31^st minute that was quickly followed by a shot that went high for Sabroso. But it was New Hampshire that struck first with a goal in the 40^th minute to have the Broncos trailing heading into the second half.

WMU turned the tide in the final 45 minutes of the match, recording 16 shots with seven landing on net.  "To start the second half, we made some changes, and we gave some guys that hadn't played yet off the bench and on the field. I think they did a really good job of starting the tempo in the second half."

Western Michigan tied the game in the 65th minute following a red card being assessed to Wildcat Brady Lewis, awarding the Broncos a free kick right back from the top of the box. Stout took the free kick for WMU, blasting a shot past New Hampshire's goalkeeper into the bottom right corner for his first goal as a Bronco.

"It was a double whammy there for New Hampshire. A kid gets sent off and Stout steps up and buries the goal. That really kind of stomached New Hampshire if you were to ask me."

With momentum on the team's side, Western Michigan peppered the Wildcats with shots, including a stretch of 10 attacks in only five minutes. This offensive wave for WMU led to the Broncos game winning goal from Sylejmani. A light touch from Sabroso by the left post of the goal gave Sylejmani a perfect right footed shot to put the ball back into the bottom right corner in the 74^th minute.

"The next ten minutes was phenomenal. It was us on our front foot. It was us knocking the ball around. Getting crosses, getting chances, ripping a couple off the crossbar and set pieces. Then finally Piero comes up on the scoresheet, setting Roni and Roni makes no mistake about it for the game winner."

Western Michigan held onto its two goal lead over the next 16 minutes, keeping New Hampshire to only three chances. WMU was cheered on to its win by the largest crowd of the season at over 1,000 people as the Broncos celebrated their annual Soccer Fest. "We bended but we didn't break. To get the win at the end of the day was our goal, and I'm really happy to do so."

WMU won't return to The Farm for another three weeks with its next three matches all on the road. Western Michigan heads down I-69 to Indianapolis on Friday for a nighttime matchup with the Butler Bulldogs. Kick-off on Sept. 5 is set for 7:00 p.m.