Sept. 19, 2008

Final Stats

Contact: Brian McCann

OLEAN, N.Y. - Cleveland State and St. Bonaventure battled through 90 minutes of regulation and 20 minutes of overtime before settling for a 0-0 tie on Friday night at SBU's McGraw-Jennings Field.

Battled may be the perfect term as the teams were called for a combined 42 fouls including six cards with CSU playing the final 11 minutes of overtime a player down after Anthony Baraldi was whistled for his second yellow card of the match on a hard play.

The tie, the second straight for the Vikings, sends CSU to 1-3-2 on the year while the Bonnies drop to 1-1-3.

"This was a good, hard-nosed and physical match tonight," CSU head coach Ali Kazemaini said. "Both teams played strong defensively and allowed very few opportunities up. We were very sluggish offensively.

"Still, we had our chances to win and it is hard to accept another tie when you play as hard as we did. We had some good performances from a couple of guys, but we didn't play very well as a team together. We need to regroup tomorrow because we have a tough match against Akron on Sunday night."

Neither team was able to generate much offense as SBU held a slight 11-8 lead in shots, but each team could only manage a pair of shots on goal.

CSU had three potential breakaway opportunities in the contest but could not control any of the three plays enough to get a good shot off.

The Vikings had a great opportunity to win the match in the second overtime but Bryan Henson's shot found the far post and stayed in the field, allowing the Bonnies to cover the play.

Cleveland State returns to northeast Ohio to continue their season-opening stretch of eight road matches in the first nine contest when the Vikings play at Akron on Sunday (Sept. 21) beginning at 7:00 p.m.