Oct. 18, 2008
Contact: Brian McCann
GREEN BAY, Wis. - Cleveland State scored a pair of second half goals to rally from a 1-0 halftime deficit to defeat Green Bay, 2-1, on Friday night at Green Bay's Alda Santago Field.
The win allowed the Vikings to break the school record for wins in a season, improving to 6-8-1 overall and 1-3-1 in league play. Green Bay slips to 3-6-3 overall and 0-4-1 in Horizon League play.
"This was a big win for us," CSU head coach Derrek Falor said. "We haven't played very well on the road this year and we haven't shown much of a ability to come back when we are behind so to win a road match that we were trailing at halftime is a milestone for us.
"I thought we were in trouble when we allowed an easy goal in the first 10 minutes of the match because we have been known to come out slowly and dig a hole for ourselves. I have to hand it to us because we rallied after the goal and played some solid soccer.
"Tonight's match started an important stretch for us because we will play three matches against teams in the lower half of the league standings that will take us up to the league tourney. If we play the way that we are capable of, then we can get a good seed for the tournament and then see what we can do," Falor added.
The Phoenix, who entered the match having won all four previous meetings with CSU, opened the scoring at the 5:27 mark when Chelsea Lyons broke free around midfield and broke in on goal. She took a long dribble that Viking netminder Kelly Zinkiewich charged, but was able to regain control and dribble around Zinkiewich before scoring into the empty net.
The Vikings finally broke onto the scoreboard in the 64th minute when the Green Bay defense misplayed a ball right to CSU freshman Natalie Daniels, who then broke in uncontested for the easy goal.
"Natalie was at the right place at the right time," Falor said. "Once she got the ball, she knew exactly what to do with it."
The game-winner came at the 77:00 mark when Daniels played a long free kick into the box that Phoenix goaltender Maddie Drusch was able to get a hand on but not control. By the time she regrouped, CSU sophomore Nicole Howard had one-timed the ball past her into the net.
"Natalie played a nice ball into the box that Green Bay was unable to clear and Nicole was again in the exactly right place. It is the kind of goal that we haven't scored very often before this year," Falor said.
The goal was the second of the season for Howard, who also scored in the win over IPFW. Daniels now leads the team in goals (4), assists (4) and points (12) this season. Zinkiewich made three saves in goal to lead CSU to the win in her first game back after suffering a concussion in the match at Detroit two weeks ago that caused her to miss the last three contests.
With back-to-back wins over IUPUI and Green Bay, CSU is now 6-8-1 this year, one more win than the school-record 5-14-1 record of a season ago.
"I said going into the season that we were a much improved team this year and that it was possible for us to go .500 this year," Falor said. "With at least four matches to go, that goal is within reach but we will need to continue to play strong down the stretch.
The victory moved CSU into sixth place in the Horizon League with a 1-3-1 record. The Vikings are slightly ahead of seventh place Valparaiso (1-4) with the two teams meeting at12:00 noon CDT on Sunday (Oct. 19).
