Wisconsin Soccer Central

Andy Stadler (Wauwatosa West) scored his first professional goals this week in a pair of wins for Sweden's Sandvikens IF.

The former George Washington standout forward scored twice in a 3-0 win over host BKV Norrtälje in a Division 2 Norra Svealand match Saturday.

That followed the goal he scored Wednesday after coming on as a 60th-minute substitute in a 9-0 rout of Gestrike Hammarby in a DM semifinal.

Stadler opened the scoring Saturday with a header off a corner kick in the 42nd minute and finished things off in the 57th as Sandvikens (8-2-4) pulled within one point of leader Enköpings SK FK in the Division 2 Norra Svealand.

Gamla Upsala (7-1-6), which has Greg Rosenthal (UW-Milwaukee) as a regular in central defense, is one point behind Sandvikens.

• Fort Lauderdale Strikers defender Aaron Hohlbein (Middleton/UW) will have knee surgery Wednesday and will miss the remainder of the North American Soccer League season. Hohlbein, the Strikers' captain, hasn't played since July 9 and the hope was rest would allow the injury to subside. But in a text message Sunday, Hohlbein wrote that a subsequent MRI showed that he needs torn cartilage removed and microfracture surgery. He played the full 90 minutes in all 14 of his appearances for Fort Lauderdale this year, his first full season with the club after playing 10 games with the team on loan from Major League Soccer's Kansas City Wizards last season. The Strikers (6-5-10) have seven matches remaining.
• J.C. Banks (Milwaukee Riverside/UW-Green Bay) was honored as the Rochester Rhinos' Rookie of the Year on Saturday night, then set up the lone goal in the team's 1-0 victory over the Pittsburgh Riverhounds. Banks recorded his fourth assist of the season on Rich Costanzo's 63rd-minute goal and has three goals in all competitions for the Rhinos (12-8-4), who won the USL PRO National Division regular-season title and play host to Pittsburgh (7-11-6) in a divisional semifinal Friday night.
• Vancouver defender Jay DeMerit (Green Bay/Bay Port) returned to action after missing seven matches because of a strained adductor injury, playing 62 minutes in the Whitecaps' 4-0 loss to host D.C. United in MLS action Saturday night. It was the first appearance since June 25 for DeMerit, who has been limited to just 11 of the expansion team's 24 league games this season because of injuries.
• Midfielder Leslie Osborne (Brookfield/Waukesha Catholic Memorial) and the host Boston Breakers claimed the fourth and final spot in the Women's Professional Soccer playoffs with a 2-0 victory over Sky Blue FC on Sunday. Casey Nogueira (Cedarburg) came on as a sub in the 34th minute for Sky Blue, which finished 5-9-4 along with the Breakers but missed the postseason on a tiebreaker. Boston will play No. 3 seed magicJack (9-7-2) on Wednesday night in Florida, with the winner to face No. 2 seed Philadelphia (11-4-3) on Saturday. Regular-season champion Western New York (13-2-3) will play host to the WPS final on Aug. 27. 
• Ashley Bares (Ozaukee/Marquette) scored in the 60th minute and assisted on Hugrún Elvarsdóttir's goal in stoppage time as Stjarnan dropped Thór/KA 2-0 Sunday to move 10 points clear at the top of the Úrvalsdeild in Iceland. Stjarnan (13-1-0) has four matches remaining, while second-place Valur (9-2-2) has five games to play. Bares, meanwhile, has 17 goals on the season, seven more than Valur's Kristín Ýr Bjarnadóttir and fellow American Manya Makoski of Thór/KA in the league scoring race.