On a cold and blustery Saturday at Engelmann Field, everything was on the line in the quarterfinals of the Horizon League Tournament between the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and Butler University. Either win or go home.

The Panthers stepped up to the challenge, defending its home turf and winning an intense 1-0 battle to move on to play UW-Green Bay in the semifinals of the Horizon League Tournament Friday in Detroit.

UWM’s only goal came off of a beautiful diving header by sophomore Tenzin Rampa in the 29th minute that proved to be the winning goal. It was Rampa’s first collegiate goal.

Junior Dale Weiler took a pass near midfield and went streaking down the sideline and made a couple of crafty moves to set up the header in which Rampa timed perfectly and sent to the near post past a diving attempt made by Butler’s goalkeeper Frank Peabody.

“We’ve been working on people crossing from one side to the other,” UWM coach Louis Bennett said. “The diving header was fantastic. You can never deny Tenzin (Rampa’s) success because he works so hard.”

In the first, half neither team had many scoring opportunities until Rampa broke through with the goal.

In the second half Butler had numerous opportunities to score but never broke through. The Bulldogs’ best opportunity came in the 76th minute when Scott Olson’s shot from the left wing ricocheted off the right portion of the cross bar.

Then in the 77th minute, Butler had another golden opportunity when a shot just rolled past the right post.

“First-round games are a battle, especially if you don’t have a well-seasoned team,” Bennett said. “This was a quick way to get seasoned. In tournament games you sometimes lose your focus and become more concerned with winning the game than playing the game.”

Milwaukee ended with the 11-10 advantage on the shot chart, but Butler had the seven-to-four edge in shots on goal. The Bulldogs also forced four of the games seven corner kicks.

The game was physical and intense, with 39 fouls, six yellow cards and one red card, as Butler’s Matt Soldato was disqualified at the 89:43 mark.

The Panthers are now just two wins away from their fourth straight Horizon League Tournament title and their fifth consecutive trip to the NCAA tournament.

UWM, which is the No. 2 seed in tournament, will look to avenge its loss to Green Bay during the regular season on Friday. The Phoenix entered the tournament as the No. 6 seed and upset No. 3 University of Illinois-Chicago 3-0 in the first round.

In the other semifinal, it will be No. 1 seed Detroit, the host, versus No. 4 Wright State.

Game time for the Milwaukee-Green Bay match-up has yet to be announced, but will be available on the Panthers’ Web site, www.uwmpanthers.com.

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