Ashland, Ohio — The GLIAC regular season champion Cardinal Men's Soccer team took to the road on Friday (Oct. 26) afternoon for the final regular season match of the season at Ashland University. SVSU jumped out to a quick 2-0 lead in the contest but ended up finishing with a 2-2 draw with the Eagles in what was the team's ninth overtime contest of the season.
Saginaw Valley scored twice inside of the first 10 minutes of play, beginning when Alex Gloshen found the back of the net at the 8' point to give the visitors a 1-0 edge off a nice feed from Michael Shaikly. The second score came when Azaad Liadi headed one in goal at the 10' marker, which was assisted by Michael Hamilton for the 2-0 score.
The Eagles would not go away, however, as Justin Libertowski stole the ball from Lukas Betz at the 32' mark and trimmed the deficit to 2-1. That was the halftime score, with the Cardinals posting six first half shots and the Eagles three.
The second half remained tight but Ashland would eventually tie the contest at 2-2 at the 66:55 point when Karuki Kimura snuck one inside of the post for the goal.
AU had nine second half shots to SVSU's four and the match would head into overtime once again for the Cards at 2-2.
SVSU owned the overtime sessions offensively, getting many great looks but it was not able to convert on a goal for the win. The Cardinals posted a 6-0 shot advantage in the extra 20 minutes of play, pushing their overall edge to 16-12 as the game finished with the 2-2 score.
Inside the Boxscore
- Liadi's goal marks his team-high seventh of the season, ranking him third in the GLIAC.
- Gloshen now has two goals on the season for the Cards.
- Shaikly collected his second helper in the match, as did Hamilton.
- Lukas Betz made five saves and allowed two goals. His record now stands at 8-1-5 for the season.
- Liadi registered five shots with three on goal while Gloshen and Hamilton each had three with a pair on net.
From Head Coach Andy Wagstaff
"Another tie today which was not the result we wanted but we credit a hard working Ashland team with a good comeback. We found ourselves 2-0 up after 10 minutes and looked comfortably in control but we let them back into the match with our own error. In the second half AU looked more up for the fight at times and pulled level at 2-2. However, we showed great spirit and dominated in OT with a number of good chances that we just could not capitalize on. Although we have won the GLIAC League Championship which is hard to do, we believe we are capable of winning much more this season. We will be ready for the GLIAC conference semi-final next Friday at home and will work very hard this week to ensure we get the results we need. We really need our students and student athletes to come out and support us and help create a great atmosphere for our huge weekend ahead."
Up Next...
The Cardinals will host the 2018 GLIAC Tournament Semifinals, which begin Friday (Nov. 2) at SVSU's Braddock Field. They will play the winner of the Northwood versus Northern Michigan quarterfinal matchup at either 10:00 a.m. or 1:00 p.m. Stay tuned to www.svsucardinals.com and @svsuathletics on Twitter for further details.
@SVSUsoccer | #svsumsoc | @svsuathletics | #BeaksUp
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