Oct. 11, 2010

Final Stats

By: Robert Ivory

Buffalo scored at the beginning and at the end of the match Monday (Oct 11) afternoon to beat Cleveland State 2-0 at Krenzler Field. Juha Kaartoluoma and Mike Unwin had the tallies for Buffalo.

Cleveland State falls to 6-7 overall and Buffalo improves to 5-6-1.

"This was a tough game because of the number of games that we have," head coach Ali Kazemaini said. "We got what we wanted out of it, but we did not get the result. We were not sharp and we did not make the best decisions. We have to stay mentally sharp for our next games."

Buffalo got on the board first at the 35:58 mark of the first half. Buffalo possessed the ball well in the Viking zone, but miss kicked the ball three times in the 18-yard box.

Although miss kicking it, the Bulls were able to pass the ball from Anthony Johnson, then the ball found the foot of Nate Woods, passed to Mike Unwin, then passed across the 6-yard box to an open Juha Kaartoluoma, who put home the shot past the diving Viking goalie, Almir Suljevic.

"When you go down you have to use more energy to get back into it," Kazemaini said. "When we go down, we are still young, so we kind of freak out

Suljevic had to come up big for the Vikings with 23:31 left in the game. Buffalo's Maksym Kowal weaved through the CSU defense, rocked a t shot from inside the box, but Suljevic made the save.

"We were glad to get him a full game," Kazemaini said.

Suljevic would have two saves in the match.

The Cleveland had several opportunities including a pair of free kicks at the top of the 18-yard box, but each would be squandered in the end. The Vikings ended with eight shots total and one shot on goal.

The Vikings got their first and only shot on goal with 5:35 left in the game when Manuel Conde, a halftime sub, took a free kick from outside the area and made Buffalo goalie Ryan Aubrey dive to his right to catch the ball.

"We had our chances in the second half," Kazemaini said. "We tried to push it in the second half, but we could not get anything going."

Buffalo finished the game with 1:44. Forward Mike Unwin used the counterattack to perfection down the right side of the field as he was left one-on-one, made a move on the CSU defender, and put the ball past Suljevic into the left corner of the net.

The Vikings return to Horizon League play on Friday (Oct. 15) when they travel to Detroit for a 4:00 p.m. kickoff. Sunday (Oct. 17) they play IUPUI in Indianapolis with an 1:00 p.m. start.