Nov. 5, 2005
Contact: Brian McCann
DETROIT, Mich. -- Cleveland State played one of its better defensive matches of the season but it was not enough as Detroit scored the only goal of the contest in the 13th minute to claim a 1-0 decision in the opening round of the Horizon League Championship.
The decision was Cleveland State's fifth one-goal loss in nine matches against league opponents this year and its eighth over the last two seasons. The Vikings end the year with a 0-18-1 record.
"If that is the difference between the No. 1 (Detroit) and No. 8 (CSU) seeds in the Horizon League this year than we have a tremendously competitive conference," head coach Pete Curtis said. "I don't think that they'd like to play us again.
"We played the majority of the second half in Detroit's half of the field but we couldn't even the match. We played the last 15 minutes a man down and we still took it to them. I'm sure that Detroit was happy to hear the final whistle.
"I told the players at halftime that if they could look each other in the eyes when they walked off the field than that is all I could ask for. I couldn't be prouder of a group of guys.
The contest was a defensive battle throughout as the two teams combined for just five shots on goal while committing 37 fouls with five yellow and one red card being assessed.
Detroit scored the only goal of the match at the 12:24 mark when Jason Massogila headed in a long throw-in from Chris Fudge.
Detroit held a slight 2-1 advantage in shots in the first half and the two teams could manage just one shot each in the second stanza.
The Vikings played without starters Cormac Finn and Burke Schultz, who were both sidelined with ankle injuries.
"We definitely missed Burke and Cormac today," Curtis said. "Burke totally dominated in the midfield the last time we were here and when you don't have the competitive spirit of someone like Cormac in the lineup, you are always going to suffer."
