Sept. 6, 2008

Final Stats

Contact: Brian McCann

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. - Drake scored two first half goals, including one just 10:01 into the contest as Cleveland State dropped a 3-0 decision to the Bulldogs in the championship game of the Missouri State Invitational.

CSU, which defeated the host Bears 2-0 on Friday, went 1-1 in the tourney to improve to 1-3 on the year. Drake improved to 4-0.

"Although the score doesn't show it, I thought we played pretty well this evening," CSU head coach Ali Kazemaini said. "Drake is one of the best teams that we will face this season and they showed it. They countered every move we made and took advantage of the mistakes that we made.

"They did a nice job of controlling the tempo of the match and limiting our opportunities," Kazemaini added.

Drake opened the scoring in the 11th minute when Ryan Moylan's cornerkick found the foot of Julien Edwards in the box and Edwards quickly put it in the back of the net.

CSU had a chance to even the score minutes later when Slavisa Ubiparipovic broke free for a breakaway down the wing and chipped the ball over the head of a goalkeeper Michael Drozd, who was charging on the play. With the ball headed for the far post, a Drake defender slid in at the last second and deflected the ball away from the goal.

The Bulldogs made it 2-0 at the 28:45 mark when Moylan took a long throw-in from Garrett Webb and beat Viking goalkeeper Nick Harpel from inside the box.

The final goal was a by-product of the aggressiveness of the Vikings offensively as Drake took advantage of the pressing CSU attackers as Webb scored off a pass from Matt Kuhn at the 83:12 mark.

Drake had a 15-4 advantage in shots with Harpel making eight saves for the Vikings. Drozd made just two saves in recording the shutout.

CSU will return home to play its only home match during the non-conference schedule when the Vikings host Niagara on Friday (Sept. 12) at 7:00 p.m. at Krenzler Field.