MILWAUKEE – Carson Pridie recorded his third shutout of the season in goal as the Milwaukee men's soccer team fought Cleveland State to a 0-0 decision Saturday afternoon from Engelmann Stadium.
The Panthers (4-4-3, 2-1-1 Horizon League) certainly had the better of the chances on the day against the Vikings (3-3-3, 1-1-2 Horizon League), but a career-high eight-save performance from Aleksandar Kolar in net for the visitors forced the home team to settle for the tie and one point in the standings.
"Cleveland State is a very good team," head coach
Kris Kelderman said. "They are defending champs for a reason. And first in the preseason poll [this year] so we knew it was going to be a tough game. Cleveland State's always been a very technical team, they're sharp on the ball."
Pridie made all six of his saves in the afternoon during the second half, including two instances down the stretch that were outstanding and kept the clean sheet intact for Milwaukee.
"I thought Cleveland State picked it up a little bit in the second half," Kelderman said. "They got a little more aggressive going forward as well. But once again, our bread and butter with our team is the team defense. We're not a team that's producing a lot of goals right now, so we've got to defend our butts off. And the guys have accepted that, and that's what we're doing. We just have to try to be a little bit more successful on some restarts, which has been a strength of ours. And we had some opportunities today on restarts, especially, that just weren't quite sharp enough."
The first of the late big stops for Pridie came in the 72
nd minute, when CSU had a quality chance on a breakaway. Pridie made a diving stop to thwart the original shot, with the ball deflecting back to the top of the six-yard box. As he got back to his feet, the rest of the MKE defense arrived to block the close-range effort and keep the match scoreless.
His final save of the afternoon came in the 85
th and was just as good, turning away what looked to be a certain goal from the wing.
"Defensively, we were good," Kelderman said. "And that's been our strength. I think the guys in the back line, specifically, have been pretty darn good this year. And that's kind of the label of our team right now. It's just team defense, and I think we're in a really good place in that regard. It's another shutout, and that's difficult at this level to have a shutout. So that's a good sign, and so we just got to keep plugging away."
The Panthers did get outshot on the day, 15-13, but certainly were the more dangerous offense. Three of Kolar's saves were highlight-reel worthy, starting with a great push over the crossbar of a
Dominic Zuniga kick from distance in the 20
th minute. He also was in the right place to deny
Riley Stevens a goal on a header off a Zuniga corner kick in the 40
th minute.
"I thought we got off to a good start, had a good first half," Kelderman said. "I like the way we played. We just stayed defensive and then tried to catch them in transition a little bit. And I thought that was going pretty well, with the exception of putting a goal on the board the first half. I thought the way we conducted ourselves and played in the first half was solid, we allowed them a little bit of possession, which is fine. But there was really no threat."
The most impressive one came in the final minute before halftime, when
Mitch Goodman volleyed an absolute missile on goal from a broken play. Kolar somehow came up with the stop, drawing quite the response from the crowd.
Milwaukee did grab the 8-6 edge in shots on goal and had eight of the 12 corner kicks on the day. Zuniga paced the offense with three shots.
Up next, the Panthers will have just one game next week, traveling to take on Robert Morris Saturday. Game time at the Colonials is set for 11 a.m. CT.
