CLEVELAND, Ohio – The Vikings fell to Mercer 11-9 in their home opener inside the Krenzler Bubble on Saturday afternoon. With the setback, the Green and White fell to 0-2 to start the season.
Cleveland State started the same way as they did in their season opener by scoring the first two goals of the game as Gavin Held and Andrew Boniface found the back of the net to lead 2-0 with 2:36 remaining in the opening quarter.
Mercer responded with the next two tallies, tying the contest with 2:03 remaining in the period. An unassisted goal by Jacob Lubrant with 34 ticks remaining put the home team back on top by one at the end of the opening quarter.
A man-up goal by Gannon Matthews off a feed from Jason Sullivan extended the advantage to 4-2 with just 23 seconds coming off the clock in the second quarter. The Bears then netted consecutive goals, retying the game at 4-4 with 7:04 left in the first half.
Cleveland State went back on top 21 seconds later as Matthews scored his second goal of the quarter. Lubrant scored the final goal of the half off a pass from Sullivan as the Vikings led 6-4 at the intermission.
Amiri Austin opened the scoring in the second half off an assist from Sullivan at the 9:43 mark as the Green and White led 7-4. However, Mercer closed the quarter with five unanswered goals to take a 9-7 advantage.
The Bears run continued into the fourth quarter as Reid Khory scored an unassisted goal with 11:57 left as MU led 10-7.
Ryan Haigh stopped the run with a man-up goal off Sullivan's fourth assist as the Vikings closed to within 10-8 with 6:29 to go. Matthews made it a one-goal game when he completed his hat-trick with an unassisted goal with 3:01 remaining.
Mercer nabbed the final goal with 1:49 showing and held off the Vikings offense down the stretch to come away with the 11-9 victory.
Inside the Box Score
Matthews led the offense with three goals on the afternoon, raising his total to five on the year. Sullivan dished out a game-best four assists, upping his total to seven on the year.
Evan Moskwa went 13-of-23 in the faceoff circle and scooped up a team-best five ground balls.
Karson Burkey and Reggie Regala each caused two turnovers. Cameron Logan made 11 saves in the goal.
Up Next
Cleveland State heads to the University of Michigan on Saturday, February 26 for a 1 p.m. contest.
