UNIVERSITY CENTER, Mich. - The Saginaw Valley State University men's soccer team fell Ashland University, 3-0, today (Oct. 17) in a Great Lake Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC) contest.
The Cardinals were unable to capitalize on their seven shots of the contest. Ashland scored their first goal at the 13:31 mark to take the 1-0 advantage over Saginaw Valley. The Eagles were able to produce two more goals within the next ten minutes of play to take the 3-0 lead into halftime.
The Cardinals came out strong, getting five shots in the second half but were unable to find the back of the net. Freshman Zach Walega (Saline, Mich. / Saline HS) had two shots, one of which was on the net for Saginaw Valley. Senior Anthony Palazzolo (Warren, Mich./De La Salle HS) and freshman Noah Sawyer (East Lansing/Haslett HS) were both able to get one shot on goal during the contest.
Head coach Cale Wassermann stated, "The score line of today's match is deceiving to anyone who was not at the game, we deserved a better result. Ashland is a quality side and they are number one in our league for a reason, but we had the run of possesion today. We moved the ball well played a good game, we worked hard for 90 minutes and it was encouraging to see us play at that level. Unfortunately, in front of both goals today the luck was not on our side, in the first half Ashland had three chances and finished them all, we were in a hole that was hard to get out of. If we play at that level and prevent easy chances in front of our goal, we will have no problem competing in our next couple games".
With the loss Saginaw Valley falls to 8-5-2 overall on the season, and 4-4-2 in the GLIAC, while Ashland improves to 9-3-2 overall on the season, and 7-0-2 in the GLIAC. The Cardinals will be back in action on Thursday (Oct. 21) when they travel to Tiffin University for a GLIAC match-up. The game is scheduled to start at 3:00 pm.