Sept. 26, 2003
CLEVELAND - The Cleveland State men's soccer team lost to UW-Milwaukee, 4-2, Friday night at Krenzler Field, in a heated match that saw four yellow cards and 45 fouls called. With the loss, the Vikings fall out of first place in the Horizon League.
UW-Milwaukee (6-3, 1-0 Horizon) got on the board first with a rocket shot by Tighe Dombrowski past goalkeeper Amir Kettani in the 20th minute, with Kyle Zenoni scoring directly off a corner kick 14 minutes later to give the Panthers a 2-0 lead. The Vikings (6-4, 2-1 Horizon) came back seven minutes later, as Stephen Ademolu was dragged down from behind in the penalty area, giving CSU a penalty kick, which David Carmichael put past UWM goalkeeper Kirk Thode.
"We had several lapses in concentration in the first half, and Milwaukee made sure they punished us for them," head coach Pete Curtis said. "We cannot afford to do that against good teams, because that's exactly what will happen. We know that our defense needs to hold up better than it did tonight and give our strikers something to work with."
The Vikings lost Kettani 57 seconds before half, as the junior goalkeeper made two brilliant saves, first blocking a shot from Dombrowski before leaping to the far post to stop a header by Antou Jallow. Kettani suffered an injury to his knee on the play, and did not return to the game. Josh Cain came in, only to have UWM pull ahead 3-1 on another goal off a corner kick, this time by Cliff Ellsworth.
Jallow made the score 4-2 at the 64th minute mark when he recieved a cross from Bobby Lish and was alone with Cain. CSU put together a furious rally, controlling the tempo for the rest of the match, but could only muster another penalty kick when Ademolu was again dragged down in the box. This time, senior Benny Eck put the kick in the back of the net for his first goal of the season.
"I was proud that our guys continued to battle and fight until the very end," Curtis said. "The guys don't like losing, but nobody can ever accuse us of being outworked on the field.
"We've come a long way, but this game shows we've still got a long way to go," Curtis said. "If we continue to improve, we're going to accomplish all the things we set out to do before the season began. Mainly, we've got to eliminate what I consider are rookie mistakes."
The Vikings return to action on Wednesday, Oct. 1, when they travel to Detroit for another Horizon League matchup. The next home game for CSU is Saturday, Oct. 4, when Wright State visits Krenzler Field.
