Final Stats

October 1, 2010

By: Robert Ivory

Cleveland, OH- Goals from John Wargo, Aaron Adkins, and Justin Cree and a Green Bay red card helped the Vikings defeat the Phoenix, 3-1, on Friday at Krenzler Field. The Vikings improve to 4-5 and 2-1 in Horizon League play and it extends their home unbeaten streak to 17 games (14 wins, no losses and 3 ties).

"It was a big win for us," Cleveland State head coach Ali Kazemaini said. "If we can put wins together, we can get to the top part of the table. We played well in the first half and we had plenty of chances to score."

The win also gives the Vikes six points in conference play, which puts them top of the table with Butler and Loyola. Butler plays later Friday night.

Cleveland State came out of the gates with a high tempo and had a few sniffs of the net early. Less than ten minutes (8:47) into the game, they did find the opener off a corner. Manual Conde put the cross in from the corner and connected with the head of John Wargo, who put the ball into the bottom left-hand corner of the net. The goal gave the Vikings the 1-0 lead and was Wargo's third of the year.

"These games are so key to score first," Kazemini said. "Scoring that first goal gave us confidence and we really pushed to get the second goal. "

The Vikings got an added bonus when Green Bay went down a player at the 28:56 mark. Phoenix forward Tony Walls received a red card for an entanglement with Conde. Conde went to the ground, the referee blew the whistle and showed Walls the red card for striking. The card was just one of nine cards, in a match that had multiple stoppages of play.

"That was a big part of the game," Kazemaini said. "We'll take it."

With that man down, Cleveland State took full advantage and at the 25:26. After the Vikes were able to make great passes to open the Green Bay defense, Audic Kilroy and Aslinn Rodas made great passes between them and Rodas had a terrific through pass to the cutting Adkins. Adkins simply beat the goalkeeper on the breakaway and celebrated his second goal of the year with a first pump.

Green Bay would get a goal back with 9:34 left in the first half. JC Banks took the shot from the right side and hit the left post. The ball then bounced out to 22. Cleveland State defender Viking defender Auric Kilroy was noticeably absent from the play, as he had to change his jersey due to blood.

CSU was able to stretch out to a more comfortable lead with their third goal of the day, with 24:53 left in regulation. The goal would come from another corner, as Wargo took the corner from the left side and found the head of an open Justin Cree in the six-yard box. "That was key for us," Kazemaini said. "He came up big to find that third goal. We have to score goals off the corner and find our big guys in the box. I am glad they got the goals because it will boost our confidence."

Green Bay falls to 4-3-1 and 0-2 in the Horizon League.

Cleveland State continues their five game home streak with Milwaukee on Sunday (Oct 3) at 1:00 p.m.