Charleston Leader

 The No. 8 Marshall University men's soccer team (3-1-0) scored three unanswered goals to take down the Cleveland State Vikings (3-1-0), 3-1, on the road and hand CSU its first loss of the season on Wednesday night.

 

"We were excellent in the first half, except for one lapse of concentration that cost us," Herd men's soccer head coach Chris Grassie said after the win. "We will definitely be working hard on cutting out needless errors, because when we do, we will be incredibly difficult to beat. Milo Yosef was excellent tonight. He had a slow start, but caught fire as the game went on. I will defend him to the hilt on the tackle. He didn't deserve to be sent off. It was great to see all three of the starting forwards get a goal tonight. Great run and finish from Joao (Souza). Amazing piece of skill from Milo to score from there (on the corner, and Matthew (Bell) with the icing on the cake. Great team build up and classy finish from Bell."

 

Cleveland State tallied the first goal of the game in the third minute on a shot by Bojan Kolevski as the Herd trailed 1-0.

 

However, in the 22nd minute, Milo Yosef sent in a cross from the right wing finding senior Joao Souza, who sent the pass into the back of the net to tie the game 1-1. It was Souza's second goal of the season on Yosef's first assist of the year.

 

Then at the 28:20 mark Yosef lined up for a corner kick. The forward sent in the corner and the ball found its way into the right side of the goal to give Marshall a 2-1 advantage on his then team-leading fourth goal of the season.

 

Freshman Matthew Bell nearly put the Herd up by two 27 seconds later, but the attempt was saved.

 

With just over a minute remaining in the first half, graduate student goalkeeper Oliver Semmle made a save on an Albert Portas shot to keep the score 2-1 at halftime.

 

Semmle came up with a pair of key saves in the first two minutes of the second half to keep MU's one-goal advantage.

 

The Herd was forced to play with 10 man after Yosef received a red card in the 74th minute of the match.

 

In the 77th minute, Bell gathered the ball off a pass from graduate student Ibrahima Diop. The Kingston, Jamaica, native then took the ball into the top-left corner of the 18-yard box and fired it into the right side of the goal to give Marshall a two-score lead, 3-1. Bell tied Yosef for the team-lead with four goals this season, and it was Diop's second assist.

 

The Vikings had two shots in the final 10 minutes, but neither found the target as Herd came out victorious on the road.

 

UP NEXT

No. 8 Marshall returns to Hoops Family Field on Sunday when it plays host to Pacific at 1 p.m.

 

For all of the latest information on the Marshall men's soccer team, follow the Herd on Twitter @HerdMSoccer, Facebook at Marshall University Soccer and on www.herdzone.com.

To follow all Thundering Herd sports and get live stats, schedules, and free live audio, download the Marshall Athletics App for iOS or Android!

Original source can be found here.