Sept. 27, 2009
Final Stats
Contact: Renee Adam
Cleveland, Ohio - The Cleveland State men's soccer team ended their second Horizon League contest of the season against UIC in a 1-1 draw with Justin Mancine recording the lone Viking goal. The Vikings now have a 3-3-2, 1-0-1 HL record, while UIC is now 1-2-4 and 0-0-1 in the Horizon League.
"We played hard today and I was a little worried coming into the match that UIC hadn't played this week," head coach Ali Kazemaini said. "We were coming off a physical match against Loyola, but we were ready for the contest today."
UIC's Derek Huffman struck first for the Flames early in the second half when he found the back of the net from the far right side of the box giving UIC a 1-0 lead. Ian Sarachan recorded the assist on the play.
"They got their goal at the start of the second half when we came out a little slow," Kazemaini said. "I think we were tired, but we were able to regroup, weather the storm and get the equalizer late in the second half."
The Vikings were able to come from behind and even the score in the 69th minute when Justin Mancine beat the UIC keeper low and to the right from five yards out, off an assist by Audric Kilroy. Mancine's goal tied the match at 1-1, and would eventually prove to be the last goal of the contest despite the two overtime periods.
"Our biggest problem today was that we just didn't have the energy to attack," Kazemaini said. "I had to substitute a lot more in the second half and overtime then I would have liked, but we just didn't have it and we were doing everything just to stop them offensively. We went hard in the first five minutes of the overtime and tried to create some things, but I was too worried about giving up a tired goal so we took it careful."
Junior Nick Harpel played all 110 minutes in the goal for the Vikings, recording five saves and allowing one goal. Harpel now has 31 saves on the season through five contests.
"If you would have said going into the weekend that we would have played UIC and Loyola and get four points (a win and a tie) I would have accepted it," Kazemaini said. "I would have loved to have the win today, but our goal is to make it into the top six and qualify for the league tournament. We aren't there yet, but we are getting close."
The Vikings travel to Wisconsin next weekend for two Horizon League contests. They will face Milwaukee on Friday (Oct. 2) at 8:00 p.m. EDT and Green Bay on Sunday (Oct. 4) at 1:00 p.m. EDT.
