Oct. 17, 2008
Contact: Brian McCann
DETROIT, Mich. - Josh Williams scored the only goal of the match just before halftime and Nick Harpel made three saves for his fourth shutout of the season as Cleveland State ran its win streak to five with a 1-0 win at Detroit on Friday.
The win allowed the Vikings to reach the .500 mark for the first time this season, improving to 6-6-2 overall and temporarily moving CSU into first place in the Horizon League with a 4-2 record. Detroit slips to 2-9-1 overall and 1-4-1 in league play.
"This was another good win for us," CSU head coach Ali Kazemaini said. "We continue to play well together as a team and take advantage of our chances to score goals.
"Today was a great example of how we are putting wins together. We played a hard first half and were fortunate to get a goal and then Detroit controlled play in the second half but our defense played hard together and didn't give them the opportunity to even the match."
Despite being out-shot 19-6 in the contest, it was the Vikings who scored first.
As the first half wound down, CSU's Kevin Malone won a ball near midfield and began a long run through several defenders. As he approached the box, he slid a pass into the middle to Williams, who blasted a shot that deflected off Titan goalkeeper Bryan Kloss and into the goal at the 38:42 mark.
"Kevin made a nice play to win the ball and quickly transitioned to offense," Kazemaini said. "That confused the Detroit defense and when he had a chance, he made a nice pass to Josh who was able to finish."
The rest of the match belonged to Harpel, who lowered his goals against average to 1.68 by withstanding a barrage of 12 Titan shots in the second stanza. He has allowed just four goals during the current win streak.
The five consecutive wins, four of which have come by a single goal, is the longest streak since the 1986 team also won five straight.
With a 4-2 record and two league matches to play, the Vikings stand atop the league standings with 12 points (three points for a win, one for a tie). Butler is in second with a 3-0-1 mark for 10 points followed by Loyola with a 3-1 record (9 points). The trio of Green Bay, UIC and Wright State are each tied for fourth with 2-1-1 records and seven points.
The Vikings have the rest of the weekend off, resuming play with their final non-conference match of the season at Ohio State on Wednesday (Oct. 22).
