Oct. 1, 2004
Contact: Brian McCann
CLEVELAND -- Bowling Green used a 28-5 shot advantage and a dozen cornerkicks to outrun Cleveland State, 5-1 on Friday night at Foltz Field.
"That's the best that we have played this year. Hands down," head coach Derrek Falor said. "We are light years away from where we were at just two weeks ago. Although we lost the match, it is good to see the improvement."
"Our possession game is really starting to show improvement. We had a plan that we executed in the build up, we switched the point of attack well and we found our players on the weak side."
"I think that we have crossed the threshold offensively so that we are now at the point where we can compete offensively with our opponents. We still have a lot of work to do defensively, but I know that will come."
Defending crosses from the wing -- the Achilles Heel of the CSU defense this year -- reared its ugly head again as the Falcons scored four of their five goals off crosses, including a pair of goals by Kristy Coppes in the first 37 minutes, to sew up the victory.
The tangible bright spot in the CSU offensive attack came at the 60:57 mark when Amber Rasmussen fed a long ball down the middle to Jennifer Wieand, who split two defenders and beat goalie Samatha Martinez to the left side for the lone Viking goal. It was the second goal of the year for CSU -- and second in two games -- with Wieand and Rasmussen teaming up on each.
The defensive standout for CSU was freshman goalie Allie Zajaros, who obliterated the old school mark of 13 saves in a match by recording 18 against the Falcons. Included in that total was a key stop on a penalty kick by Julie Trindle midway through the second half.
"Allie continues to do a solid job in the nets," Falor said. "She was exceptional tonight on direct kicks and cutting down the angles."
The loss drops CSU's record to 0-11 while Bowling Green improves to 2-8-1.
The Vikings return to action on Sunday (Oct. 3) when they open Horizon League play against UW-Milwaukee beginning at 12 noon at Foltz Field in Strongsville.
"Our players have no history with UW-Milwaukee or any of the other league schools, but we are excited to play a league match," Falor said. It is what we have been pointing to for the last 11 matches."
