Oct. 11, 2004

Final Stats

Contact: David Barry

Mentor - David Prentice scored in the 89th minute to put the Vikings within one goal, but Cleveland State's late attempts to force overtime fell short in a 2-1 loss to the nationally-ranked Akron Zips Monday night at Mentor High School. Cleveland State was outshot, 9-6, but edged Akron in corner kicks, 3-2.

"We are disappointed with the result," coach Pete Curtis said after the match. "But we performed well, and the guys can walk off the field tonight with their heads high."

Cleveland State (4-6-2) had a few excellent chances in the first half, as Andreas Roaldset curled a shot from 25 yards off the post, while the Vikings also missed an open net and a chance to take an early lead.

"I feel like we gave them a big scare in the first half," Curtis said. "We did so in terms of the chances we created, and it was very unfortunate we did not convert any of those chances."

Akron (8-2-2), ranked 16th in the latest Soccer America poll, scored first in the 64th minute when Mentor native Sinisa Ubiparipovic took a 1-2 pass from Steve Kalan into CSU's box and shot the ball past a diving Amir Kettani. Akron made it a two-goal advantage four minutes later when Brendan Murphy touched in a rebound after a save from Kettani.

Prentice scored his goal off a corner kick, heading in a David Stewart cross to push the Vikings to within a goal with just over a minute left. Cleveland State fought hard all the way to the final minute - when a foul was called on Akron with just over five seconds to play. With the clock stopped because of the infraction, the Vikings' sent a long ball from 45 yards out into the box - a ball that was cleared away by Akron to preserve the win.

"The guys showed character tonight - especially for such a young team," Curtis said. "We came back and gave ourselves a chance to tie the game. We did not quit."

Cleveland State will host Buffalo on Friday, Oct. 15th at a special 3:00 p.m. start time at Lost Nation Sports Park. The match marks the second and final CSU home match to be played at Lost Nation, with the remaining home games to be played at Mentor High School.

"Tonight's match showed us that we can compete with any team on our schedule," Curtis noted. "If we can take the form we showed in parts of the game tonight and apply it to an entire game, there's a not team we can't beat."