Men's Soccer With Two Exhibition Games This Week

Posted: Aug 14, 2012

Aug. 14, 2012

The Cleveland State men's soccer team will be putting its talent to the test in two exhibition games this week as the players and coaches get ready to face two Pennsylvania squads in a four day stretch.

Both matches for the Vikings will be home at Krenzler field as they take on Gannon at 7:00 p.m. Thursday, August 16th and then St. Francis (Pa.) on Sunday, August 19th at 1:00 p.m.

If there is one word that could easily describe this 2012 group of Vikings as they get ready for the season it would be experienced.

The Vikings not only bring back 2011 all-league honorees Aaron Adkins, Admir Suljevic, Brad Stuver, Aslinn Rodas and Mike Derezic, they return 17 players off of last year's 9-9-1 team that finished tied for second in the Horizon League standings (5-2-1).

"This is their year," said head coach Ali Kazemaini on the returning group. "Hopefully they have the experience of the last couple years. We're excited but we don't want to get too excited until we find the right chemistry, every year is different."

One area that should have some strong chemistry is offensively, as CSU brings back every player (seven in total) who scored a goal last season.

"The offense is going to be key for us, like any other sport," Kazemaini said. "We have figured out a way to maintain a lot of ball possession and if we can complement that with some timely finishing I think that's when we're good."

Some of those players who will be looking to take on that scoring load include Aaron Adkins (nine goals in 2011), Admir Suljevic (seven goals in 2011), and Jordan Hart (five goals in 2011).

Both Adkins and Suljevic were first team all-league performers last season for CSU at the forward spot.

The midfield will also boast two all-league returners for CSU as Derezic, a member of the all-newcomer team in 2011, and Rodas, a second team all-league member, will be fighting at both ends of the field for the Vikings.

They will be joined in the midfield by a mix of players including junior Tommy Fitzgerald, sophomores Milos Govedarica and Jacob Naumann, and freshman Cristian Arboleda, Victor Zamora and Danilo Radjen.

Led by senior Brad Stuver in goal (66 saves last season) the team will be looking to have continued success on the defensive end of the field as well to help complement those other positions.

Stuver, a soon to be four year starter, will be putting his all-league skills in goal as two time all-league honoree (first team in 2010 and second team in 2011), and goalie of the year award winner, just as he has his entire career.

He is currently climbing the career charts in the CSU record books as he heads into his senior season. Not only is he sixth all-time in career shutouts (11.0), he is also seventh all-time in career saves (211).

Along with Stuver is an experienced set of defenders including Zach Ellis-Hayden, Justin Cree, Justin Mancine and Al James, among others. Those four players named have 142 combined starts, with three of the four (Cree, Mancine and Ellis-Hayden) having started at least 37 games for the Vikings.

"Defensively we really haven't had a lot of problems (in the past)," Kazemaini said. "If you look in the last couple years we hardly get team's shelling us with four or five goals so defense has been solid."

Following the two exhibition contests the team's first regular season match-up will be on the road at Robert Morris at 4:00 p.m. on August, 24th.