Sept. 23, 2007
Contact: Brian McCann
PITTSBURGH, Pa. -- Anthony Rucci scored his first career goal and Nick Harpel stopped a Duquesne penalty shot but it wasn't enough as the Dukes scored a goal in each half to claim a 2-1 win over Cleveland State on Sunday.
The loss drops the Vikings to 2-4-1 on the year while Duquesne improves to 2-3-2.
"This is a tough loss for us," head coach Ali Kazemaini said. "I thought that we played them pretty much evenly but they caught a few more breaks. Still, we are a young team that is still learning to play together."
The Vikings got a big boost in the opening minutes when Harpel stopped a penalty shot by Duquesne's Alex Trujillo at the 14:33 mark. Trujillo had tried to score low in the right corner but Harpel read the play correctly and grabbed to ball while diving to his left.
"That was a great play by Nick," Kazemaini said. "He saw that the guy wanted to go to the right but stayed on his mark until the last second."
Inspired by the defensive stop, the Vikings opened the scoring at the 32:17 mark when Anthony Rucci took advantage of a Duquesne defensive miscue to put CSU ahead 1-0. One Duke midfielder was playing the ball back to a defender and when Rucci challenged, the defender let the ball get by him. Rucci pounced on the ball and took it towards goal, beating the Duquesne goalie to the right side.
"Rucci's goal was all because of his hustle. If he hadn't challenged on the pass back to the defender, he wouldn't have misplayed it," Kazemaini said.
The lead stood until juts before half when Duquesne evened the contest at 1-1 in the 42nd minute when Nicco Barton scored on a header from the middle of the box.
Duquesne would change its offensive tactics at the intermission, leaving an extra defender back and playing long balls ahead to its forwards. The move caused problems for the Vikings
"It took is awhile to adjust to their change in offensive approach," Kazemaini said. "They started playing the long ball ahead and that caused the pace of play to pick up. At the other end, they packed in their defense which made it hard for us to penetrate."
Duquesne scored the game-winning goal at the 63:23 mark because of the indecisiveness of the CSU defense as the Vikings were unable to adequately clear the ball from their end, allowing Duquesne to take possession just outside the box and the ball eventually found Travis McKenzie, who blasted a shot in from 12 yards out.
The Vikings would pressure down the stretch but not be able to break the Duquesne defense as the Dukes had a 6-1 shot advantage in the second half and a 18-6 edge for the match.
Cleveland State returns to action this week when the Vikings play at Canisius on Sunday (Sept. 30).
