CLEVELAND, Ohio – The Cleveland State Vikings men's soccer team came up on the wrong end of a thrilling double overtime match on Sunday afternoon, falling 2-1 to Northern Kentucky inside the Krenzler Bubble.
True freshman Julian Pelligrini netted his first career goal late in the second half to force the extra period with Jannis Schmidt and Sahaab Kular both adding assists. With the primary helper, Schmidt extended his point streak to four games, totaling nine points on 4-1-9 during that stretch.
Cleveland State controlled possession for the majority of the match, outshooting Northern Kentucky 24-11, but the Norse logged an early marker before finding the golden goal in the 108th minute.
THE GAME
In what turned out to be a physical match throughout, four yellow cards were handed out over the open 27 minutes of play.
The Vikings rattled off six of the first seven shots, but it was the Norse who opened the scoring, tallying a seventh-minute goal courtesy of Tobias Karlsen, who deflected home a cross from Sam Robinson.
Cleveland State owned a 10-4 edge in shots through the first 45 minutes, including strikes on net by Pablo Kawecki, Andrew Nicholas and Tommy Paltani.
With the Vikes trailing in the 79th minute, head coach Sinisa Ubiparipovic turned to Pelligrini, who has established himself as a regular substitute through the first five games of his collegiate career. The Medina, Ohio product. Pelligrini found the back of the net only 58 seconds after checking in, launching a shot from near the 18 that deflected under the crossbar to level the match at 1-1.
Northern Kentucky nearly pulled ahead in the final minute, but Omeed Naeemy made an acrobatic save on a shot that seemed destined for the upper right corner of the net. The rebound was pushed out to Northern Kentucky's Robinson, whose attempt sailed high.
The Vikings generated a pair of corners and three shots over the first 10 minutes of overtime but were unable to break through.
Cleveland State outshot Northern Kentucky 13-3 during the second half and opening overtime period, but the Norse took control in the second extra frame. Northern Kentucky logged a 4-1 advantage in shots and found the game-winer when Ben Hegge sprung Brodie Sallows with a through ball up the middle, setting Sallows up for a finish low to the left side.
Kawecki logged four shots, including three on goal, while Bojan Kolevski fired four shots and Paltani and Pellgrini produced three attempts each.
The Vikings generated 13 total corners compared to only three for the Norse. The match saw a total of nine cards distributed between the two sides.
UP NEXT
Cleveland State begins a stretch of three road games over its next four matches next Saturday with a 2:00 p.m. kickoff in Milwaukee.
