VALPARAISO, Ind. - The Cleveland State men's soccer team dropped a 1-0 decision to Valparaiso on Saturday night.

The Vikings fell to 3-5 overall, 0-2 in the Horizon League while the Crusaders improved to 4-2-2 overall and 1-0-1 in league play.

In a series that had seen three scoreless draws over the previous seven matches and just four total goals during that stretch, the first half went exactly as one would think. The Vikings and Crusaders headed to the break knotted in a scoreless draw in another hard fought Horizon League match.

CSU managed five corner kicks in the first half, four of them in the first 15 minutes, but were unable to get on the board. Sergio Manesio and Antonio Burgoa each tallied a shot in the first 45 minutes and Alek Drobac, making his second straight start in goal, made three saves.

The second half began much like the first. Throughout the first 25 minutes of the second half, the teams went back and forth but to the Vikings misfortune, the Crusaders eventually found gold. At the 71:24 mark, Valpo's Stian Sandbekkhaug intercepted a clearance by the Cleveland State defense and hit the back of the net from 15 yards out for his first goal of the season. That was all the Crusaders needed as the final 18 minutes were scoreless and the game finished 1-0.

The Vikings led corner kicks 7-4 and Drobac made four more saves in the second half, tallying seven for the game.

Hesham Hammouda, Jake Lagania, Mustafa Raychouni and Gianluca DiFranco all tallied shots in the second half to go with Manesio and Burgoa's first half attempts.

As the Vikings hit the midway point of their season, they will play seven of their final nine games against Horizon League opponents, beginning that stretch with two matches at Krenzler Field against Detroit (Oct. 3) and Northern Kentucky (Oct. 7).