GAME #16
at Detroit Mercy | Friday, Nov. 2 | 3:00 p.m.
Live Video | Live Stats
PDF Notes
Week #11
THE OPENING KICK:
• Cleveland State closes the season this Friday, Nov. 2, at Detroit Mercy.
• CSU is 12-17-2 all-time against Detroit, but the Vikings have held a slight upper hand in recent years as CSU is 6-4-1 in meetings within the past decade.
• Friday's match will be the 11th meeting in the last nine seasons between the programs, and the squads have met at least once each season since 1994.
• Cleveland State claimed a 3-1 win at Detroit in the 2016 meeting ending its three-match losing streak between the teams in matches in Michigan.
• This will be the third time the Vikings have faced the Titans to close the regular season, but the first time they have done so in Detroit.
LAST TIME OUT:
• A rough 10-minute stretch in the first half saw Cleveland State allow three goals, and the Vikings could not recover as they fell to Oakland, 4-2.
• Gabriel Pewu scored his team-leading sixth goal in the setback.
• Senior Gianluca DiFranco scored in his final home match by converting a penalty kick in the second half after Pewu was fouled in the box.
FREE KICKS:
• CSU has been seeded fourth or better in the Horizon League Tournament in eight of the past 10 seasons entering 2018, the highest figure in the League.
• CSU's last two wins marked the first time since 1984 the Vikings won back-to-back matches against teams currently in a Power Five conference. It was the first time that it won two such matches on the road since 1974.
• Vlad Jandric was named Horizon League Offensive Player of the Week Oct. 1 and Thomas M'Barek earned Defensive Player of the Week honors Oct. 8. It marked the first time since 2011 that Vikings were honored by the HL in back-to-back weeks.
• Gabriel Pewu has six goals and an assist in the past 10 matches.
• Noah Pio has six assists in the past 10 matches.
• Jandric's hat trick, in the 3-1 win over UIC, was the first by a Viking since Admir Suljevic achieved the feat during the 2013 campaign.
• Cleveland State's win over UIC Sept. 29 ended a 12-match unbeaten run by the Flames against Horizon League opposition.
• Noah Pio has a point in 12 of the past 26 matches. Pio was among the top 10 in points, goals and assists in HL play in 2017.
• Cleveland State has outshot its opponent in nine of 14 matches and was tied in shots in another match.
• The Vikings are the only team that has not been outshot at all throughout Horizon League play. CSU has outshot six foes and tied in shots with one.
• Noah Pio has scored or assisted on nine of CSU's last 17 goals in Horizon League matches.
• Among the 70 starts made by Vikings on defense or in goal this season: 29 starts have been made by true freshman or redshirt freshman, 38 starts have been made by sophomores with one start by a junior and two by a senior.
• Nine CSU freshmen have started at least once with left back Ryan Kolonick leading that group with 11 starting assignments.
• Gabriel Pewu's goal at Milwaukee was his first-career tally in HL play. He has since scored vs. IUPUI and Oakland within the League this season.
• DiFranco's penalty kick last week against Oakland was the first made PK by the Vikings in a regular-season contest since 2016.
• Austin Mitchell and Hayden Parente became the 24th and 25th Vikings to start a match in 2018 when they started last time out against Oakland.
• Tommy Paltani only played 39 minutes combined in the first six matches. He averaged 63 minutes over the next seven contests, starting five of them, but missed last week's match due to injury.
• Noah Pio has assisted on four of Gabriel Pewu's six goals this season.
• Thomas M'Barek is the only Viking to start all 14 matches thus far in 2018. He owns 16 consecutive starts, the most among active Vikings.
• Vlad Jandric's streak of 21 consecutive starts was broken when he missed the match at Loyola (Md.) due to injury.
• Four Vikings that started at Loyola (Md.) were starting for the first or second time this season.
• Five Vikings have tallied their first collegiate assist this season--Vlad Jandric, Colin Kane, Ryan Kolonick, Zack Kluever and Jannis Schmidt.
• Kluever and Ben Hryszko each scored their first collegiate goal in 2018.
• Hayden Parente scored his first goal as a Viking at Northern Kentucky.
• Pio's goal vs. Green Bay was the first time a Viking free-kick taker scored since the opening weekend of the 2016 season (excluding penalty kicks).
• Austin Mitchell made his collegiate debut by starting in goal against Oakland.