Sept. 19, 2004

Box Score

Contact: David Barry

HUNGTINGTON, W Va. - The Cleveland State men's soccer team had a two-match win streak snapped with a 3-2 loss to Marshall Sunday afternoon at Sam Hood Field in Hungtinton, W Va. Spencer Lappin scored a pair of goals for the second straight match for the Vikings, who fought back in the second half after trailing 3-0.

John Danielle scored first for Marshall at the 17:19 mark of the first half, with the goal coming off an assist from Salvador Djeukeng. Djeukeng then found Mike Bourassa, who scored at the 43:55 mark, just over a minute before halftime.

Within the first 30 seconds of the second half, the Vikings missed a near opportunity to slice the Marshall lead back to one. Cleveland State, though, failed to score and five minutes later Djeukeng pocketed another goal to give Marshall a 3-0 lead.

"We didn't start playing until the 2nd half, at all," head coach Pete Curtis said. "We finally started to put pressure on them, and we controlled the vast majority of the second half. Unfortunately, we just fell a little short."

Spencer Lappin scored the Vikings' first goal less than 90 seconds after Marshall took its 3-0 lead. David Prentice won a hard-earned ball in the midfield, then played the ball behind the defense to find Lappin, who netted his fourth goal in as many games this season.

David Stewart won possesion of a ball on the right flank in the 79th minute, and played a well-timed pass to Lappin, who scored again, cutting the Marshall lead to 3-2. The two-goal performance is the second straight for Lappin, but the Vikings missed plenty of opportunities to tie the game late in the second half.

"We had plenty of chances today," said Curtis. "We've got to convert our chances. But we will take the positives of the last 40 minutes, touch up our defense, and we should be fine."

The Vikings were outshot, 15-13, but took more corners than the Herd, with four compared to none. Amir Kettani posted seven saves in goal for Cleveland State.

The Vikings travel to IPFW for a 7:00 p.m. start on Tuesday, Sept. 21st in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Cleveland State then returns home on Friday, Sept. 24th to host Xavier at 4:00 at Lost Nation Sports Park in Mentor.