UNIVERSITY CENTER, Mich. - The Saginaw Valley State University men's soccer team defeated Walsh, 5-2 on Tuesday (Nov. 5) in the opening round of the 2013 Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC) Tournament.

Scoring in the match began with a Walsh header off of a corner kick that beat Joshua Howell at the 29:07 mark, giving the Cavaliers a 1-0 lead.

Just over one minute later, Jordan Kalk scored his eighth goal of the year off a rebound from a Vaughn Frederick shot to tie the game at one.

The Cavaliers struck again in the 41st minute after a scrum in front of the SVSU net opened up space for the visitors to put a ball in the back of the net.  

The 2-1 Walsh lead would hold entering the half.

Saginaw Valley came out in the second half recharged. The Cardinals scored four straight goals to grab a 5-2 lead over the visitors from North Canton, Ohio.

The scoring began with a Mitch Reinhart rocket from 20 yards out off a feed from Craig Neal, tying the score up at two goals apiece.

The second goal came off the foot of Neal in the 55th minute when he dribbled though the Walsh defenders with ease before beating the goalkeeper from 15 yards out.  Neal's goal gave the Cardinals their first lead of the game at 3-2.

Tyler Channel and Zach Walega used beautiful passes back and forth to each other before Channell beat the keeper in the 69th minute for the home team's third goal of the half, making the score 4-2.

The scoring concluded at the 72:30 as Kalk scored his second goal of the match, wrapping up the 5-2 Cardinal victory.

The Cardinals outshot Walsh 29-22 in the highly offensive match, while the Cavaliers edged the Cardinals in corner kicks, 9-7.

Howell got his first career victory in net for the Cardinals, stopping 8-of-10 Cavalier shots on goal.

Saginaw Valley improves to 10-3-5 overall on the season and Walsh's season comes to an end with a 5-11-1 overall record.

SVSU will now travel to Columbus, Ohio to take on Tiffin University on Friday (Nov. 8) in a GLIAC Semifinal match with the #2-seeded Dragons.  The two teams played to a 1-1 tie both times they have met in 2013, the first game being shortened by bad weather.  Kickoff for the contest is set for 4:00 pm, with the winner advancing to face the victor of the Ohio Dominican/Lake Erie match, which is set to start at 7:00 pm on Friday.  The semifinals are being hosted at Ohio Dominican University's Panther Field.