UNIVERSITY CENTER – The #2 Saginaw Valley State University men's soccer team defeated the Malone Pioneers for the second time this season by a score of 4-1 on Friday (10/10) at SVSU's Braddock Field. The Cardinals defeated the Pioneers 3-0 earlier this season on September 21st in Canton, Ohio.
The Cardinals controlled the majority of play in the first half as SVSU out-shot Malone 9-3, with four out of the nine being put on goal. Saginaw Valley would finally find the back of the net when freshman Aleksandar Isaevski received a touch pass from Craig Neal and put one past the Pioneer goalkeeper at the 33:03 mark.
Right before the half, SVSU struck again. Sophomore Jordan Kalk was able to use a pass from Zach Vasold and dribble past several Malone defenders close to the goal and score his third goal of the season at the 44:18 mark to put the Cards up 2-0 heading into the break.
Saginaw Valley kept the pressure on the Malone defense at the start of the second half as well. Junior Tyler Channell received a pass from Vaughn Frederick in front of the net and buried one to push the Cardinal lead to 3-0. It was Channell's third goal of the season and Frederick's first assist.
SVSU would add one more at the 53:14 mark when Isaevski received another pass from Neal to score his second goal of the game and his third of the season. Neal finished the afternoon with his fourth and fifth assists of the season.
The Cardinals would hold a 4-0 lead until the 71:54 mark, when Malone forward Sam Tonelli was able to use a pass from Matt Akindipe to head one past goalkeeper Alexandre Bouillennec.
Bouillennec recorded two saves in the victory and pushed his record to 9-0-2 for the 2014 season. The freshman was second in the nation with his outstanding 0.554 goals-against-average and had the fourth-best save percentage in the country (.891) heading into the match. As a team, the Cardinal defense had the eighth-best goals-against-average in the nation with a 0.55 mark.
"Overall today was a positive day, as we played some great attacking soccer and created a ton of chances," said SVSU head coach Cale Wassermann. "Our balance throughout the game was good but we were disappointed that a few moments went by where we lost focus and ended up conceding a late goal. At the end of the day it is a big win leading into Sunday where we will play a tough Walsh team that will be looking to get back at us after what happened at their place a few weeks back."
Wassermann was referring to the Cardinals' 4-3 overtime victory over the Cavs back on September 19th in what was a back-and-forth affair.
Saginaw Valley improves its record to 9-0-2 overall and 6-0-2 in the GLIAC with the victory today while the Pioneers fall to 1-8-1 overall and 0-7-1 in GLIAC play. SVSU returns to action on Sunday (10/12) when the Walsh Cavaliers come to Braddock Field for a 12:00 pm match time.
