Aug. 17, 2011
Contact: Tim Ertle
LORETTO, Pennsylvania - The Cleveland State men's soccer team came up on the short end of its exhibition opener Wednesday afternoon as a goal to close each half propelled host St. Francis to a 2-0 victory.
After neither team could get on the board for much of the first half, Red Storm midfielder Tobi Iguade beat goalkeeper Brad Stuver with just under 90 seconds remaining to give St. Francis a 1-0 lead at the intermission.
St. Francis added an insurance goal with under seven minutes remaining in the contest when David Butler tallied his first goal of the preseason to make it a 2-0 game.
Each team had 10 shots, with the Red Storm putting six on goal compared to five from the Vikings. Admir Suljevic led the charge with three shots, two of which were on goal, for CSU.
Statistics - or the final score for that matter - didn't seem to be of great concern to head coach Ali Kazemaini.
"You always want to win, but today was one of those days where the result wasn't too important," he said. "We had a chance to see where we are at as a team. I saw some things I liked and some things I didn't like and we can come away from this with a better idea of what we need to work on."
One of the things they'll work on - as is to be expected in the preseason - is their fitness.
"We were able to play a lot of guys, which was what we were looking to do," Kazemaini said. "But we're not to the point where we need to be physically. We were able to play our style for about 25 to 30 minutes and that will come with time."
On the mental side, Kazemaini was quick to point out the defense was in position on both goals the Vikings surrendered and stressed how important that is at this point in the season.
The Vikings will get one more tune-up to work out the kinks when they host the Cincinnati Bearcats in their final exhibition game Saturday (Aug. 20) at 4:00 p.m. One week after that, it's for real when they open the regular season with the defending national champions, the Akron Zips.
