Oct. 3, 2004
Contact: David Barry
Dayton, OH - After tying both of its two prior matches, the Cleveland State men's soccer team played to a heart-breaking, 2-1 loss to Wright State Sunday afternoon in Dayton. Spencer Lappin scored his seventh goal of the season in the loss for the Vikings.
"It was a very disappointing afternoon," coach Pete Curtis said after the match. "But we take it as another lesson learned. Hopefully we can avoid this sort of trap as we gain more experience. We had chances to win the game today but we never took them."
Lappin opened the scoring in the tenth minute when he finished a beautifully weighted ball from David Prentice to give the Vikings an early 1-0 lead.
The match would stay that way until a controversial call in the 79th minute awarded Wright State a penalty kick. Winston Marshall converted it for the Raiders to tie the game. Wright State would score the game-winner on a scramble in the box that came less than three minutes later. Jason Tackis gathered the loose ball and finished from 15 yards away to give the Radiers the lead for good.
"We were very disappointed the call went the way it did," Curtis said. "We felt let down by the awarding of the penalty. Maybe it's an indication of a young team, but our concentration lapsed with the awarding of the penalty."
Cleveland State executed its defensive gameplan to perfection until the awarding of the penalty kick. The strategy was to refuse penetration and allow Wright State to shoot from distance.
"The penalty kick came at a bad time because they had completely run of out creative ideas offensively," Curtis said. "We went according to plan but still did not come away with a victory. The guys are absolutely devastated - they felt they had done enough to win."
Cormac Finn had an outstanding game in the midfield, while the defense also held solid. Coach Curtis also noted the solid play of Craig Coleman, who limited Wright State forward Ricky Strong to just three shots - and no goals - in the match.
Cleveland State will next host Robert Morris on Tuesday, Oct. 5th at 7:00 p.m. at Mentor High School.
"We need to make the most of our opportunities or else we're going to keep losing these close games," coach Curtis said. "We need to rectify a few things so we can get the job done on Tuesday."
