Nov. 2, 2008
Contact: Brian McCann
INDIANAPOLIS, Indiana -- Slavisa Ubiparipovic's goal in the 80th minute allowed the Vikings to come back from a 1-0 deficit to force overtime, but the two teams played the extra 20 minutes for nothing as the Vikings tied Butler, 1-1, on Sunday at the Butler Bowl.
The tie, coming in the regular season finale, Kept CSU at .500 for the season, 7-7-3 overall and 5-2-1 in league play while Butler moved to 13-2-4 overall and 5-0-3 in league play.
The Vikings entered the game needing a win over the Bulldogs combined with a UIC loss to Loyola on Sunday evening to claim their first-ever Horizon League regular season crown. Instead, the Vikings will finish as either the second or third place team, entering next week's Horizon League Championship as the No. 3 seed.
Butler will claim the regular season crown if UIC ties or loses to Loyola while the Flames only need to win to claim the title and top seed.
"We knew what we had to do today to win the title but we didn't quite get it done," CSU head coach Ali Kazemaini said. "This was a pretty even match. For awhile during the match we were playing better than they did but then they came back and played better than we were.
"I would have liked to get the win and force UIC to do something tonight to win the title, but we just couldn't finish our chances and net the game-winner.
"We had a couple of good opportunities to score in the overtimes but just couldn't convert them," Kazemaini added.
After a scoreless first half that featured Butler owning an 8-4 advantage in shots, the Bulldogs opened the scoring at the 63:56 mark when Frank Patano scored his 12th goal of the season off assists from Eduardo Garcia and Ben Sippola.
On the play, Patano took a feed on the right wing and launched a shot that skipped off the back post and into the net.
"That was a tough play," Kazemaini said. "If it bounces off the post the other way, we cover it easily."
With Butler packing in the defense in an attempt to hold off CSU late, the Vikings evened the match at the 79:44 mark when Mitch Boyer played a free kick from the right wing into the middle that Ubiparipovic redirected into the goal for his fourth goal of the season.
The last 10 minutes of regulation would go without a goal and Butler would have an 8-4 shooting edge in the extra sessions to out-shoot CSU, 27-13 for the match.
Nick Harpel made five saves in goal for the Vikings while Butler's Nick Hegeman made four stops.
By finishing in third place in the final league standings, the Vikings earn a first round bye in next week's Horizon League Championship. CSU will begin play by hosting the winner of the No. 7 Milwaukee and No. 6 Wright State match, which will be played on Thursday (Nov. 6) at Wright State, on Sunday, Nov. 2 at Krenzler Field. A game time will be determined on Monday.
