KENOSHA, Wis. - The 18th-ranked Saginaw Valley State University men's soccer team improved to 2-0 on the 2015 season after posting a 4-1 victory on the road at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside.
"Today was a good test for our team against a tenacious UWP team in the sweltering heat," said SVSU head coach Andy Wagstaff. "The first 20 minutes I felt like we were too casual and not playing our usual style. After we scored our first goal, the game settled down for us and we began to paly a much better attacking brand."
The Cardinals got out to a 2-0 lead with a pair of first half goals, the first coming from Oluwatobi Oyeleye for his first career goal at the 27:50 marker to give the visitors the 1-0 advantage. The goal came off an Aleksandar Isaevski corner kick, as he notched the assist on the play. Isaevski would find the back of the net himself just three minutes later, as he used a Tyler Channell feed to score and make the count 2-0 at the 30:49 mark.
Michael Winters found Jordan Kalk just under a minute into the second half (45:38) to increase the lead to 3-0. It was Kalk's third goal of the early season.
After the Rangers scored a goal at the 64:13 marker to trim the Cardinal lead to 3-1, Channell set up Oyeleye at the 67:52 point to push the lead out to 4-1. It was Oyeleye's second goal of the match and it marked Channell's fifth assist of the season in just two matches.
Alexander Bouillennec improved to 2-0 for the season after making one save in his 90 mintues of action between the posts.
"In the second half we came out determined to score the game's third goal and we managed to do that quickly," added Wagstaff. "I was, however, disappointed with conceding a goal because we take pride in resilient defending as a team. I am excited at the discipline out team showed this weekend and delighted with two tough road wins against very strong regional opponents."
Saginaw Valley carries its 2-0 record into GLIAC play Friday, September 11th. The Cardinals face Northwood in the first league contest of the 2015 season. Kick-off is set for 4:00 p.m. in Midland, Mich.