ST. CHARLES, Mo. – The Vikings (4-3, 1-0) opened ASUN play on Saturday with a 10-7 road win against Lindenwood (0-4, 0-1). With the victory, Cleveland State extended their winning streak to three and have now won back-to-back conference openers.
The Lions netted the only goal of the first quarter at the 6:24 mark.
Lindenwood extended the lead to 2-0 before Wyatt Robertson got the Vikings on the board with 10:18 left in the first half.
Parker Yearego evened the game at the 6:53 mark, and Gavin Held gave the Green and White their first lead of the game off a pass from Yearego with 3:34 left in the half.
Neither team found the back of the net again with Cleveland State leading 3-2 at halftime.
LWU knotted the game with 9:32 showing and retook the lead just eight seconds later. The home team extended the margin to two at the 4:06 media timeout and then struck again 23 seconds later to make it 6-3.
Michael Care ended the shutout in the quarter with 1:17 to go as the Vikings trailed 6-4 with one frame remaining in regulation.
Connor Zwagerman trimmed the deficit to one just 47 seconds into the fourth, and Robertson secured his second of the game, tying it at 6-6 with 8:28 to go.
Lindenwood reclaimed their final lead of the game with 7:53 remaining, but Care answered back less than a minute later to knot it at 7-7.
An unassisted Yearego tally with 5:38 showing put Cleveland State back on top, 8-7. Held then secured the victory with 23 ticks left off a feed from Amiri Austin. Austin then put the exclamation point on the ASUN opening win with three seconds remaining as the Green and White won their third straight, 10-7.
Cleveland State held a 41-27 edge in shots while both teams picked up 31 ground balls. The faceoff circle favored the Green and White, 15-of-21.
Yearego, Held, Robertson, and Care all finished with two goals. Robbie Stewart was a perfect 10-of-10 on faceoffs with a game-best six ground balls.
Robbie Brazanskas forced a game-best three turnovers. Connor Kernan moved to 3-0 in goal this season after making eight saves.
The Vikings play their first ASUN home game on Saturday, March 23 at noon against Robert Morris.
