On a beautiful night on the campus of Mercyhurst University in Erie, PA, Cleveland SC came back from an early Erie 3rd minute goal to win their fourth game of the year over the Commodores, 2-1, on two late second half goals by Alec Nagucki and Ailton Silva. With the loss, Erie sits in last place in the Rust Belt conference while Cleveland stays atop the standings with 12 points.
Getting to the field was a chore for Cleveland. According to the club, there was an accident on I-90 that closed the interstate down. Some of the CSC players arrived late to the stadium with one starter, Daniel Koniarczyk, coming into the game in the second half. So, with the uncertainty prior to the match, it probably wasn’t hard to think that Erie would score early, but that they did. In the third minute Erie was awarded a corner kick. As the kick came in the ball seemed to kick off a CSC defender and the ball somehow rolled away from every defender to the feet of the Erie defender, Sam Richards, where he quickly slotted home the first goal.
The 7th minute saw Cleveland with a free kick from the right side of the touch line. The cross in was quickly headed away. About a minute later, Cleveland again tested the middle of the Erie defense in front of the goal, but the skipping pass was cleared and ultimately led to another corner that was unsuccessful.
In the 11th minute, Erie had two-point blank chances that were saved by Cleveland goalkeeper, Pedro Alves. The second was remarkable since he was forced to quickly regain his composure after the first save to parry the second away.
Pedro Alves with a fantastic save #WeAreCLE
— Cleveland SC (@SoccerCLE) June 12, 2022
In the ensuing break, Cleveland’s Benjamin Hryszko just missed an open shot from the top of the box that just cleared the top bar of the goal.
This really was the story of the first half, where Cleveland was showing good passing and an ability to get the ball into the box but no one to really slot it home. The physical nature of the game increased as the minutes passed and at the end of the half, you began to wonder when Cleveland would get its first goal…and if the other players who were slowed by the accident on the interstate would get to the field!
The second half started with Cleveland on the pedal, and in the 72nd minute, their first goal was tallied. Ben Hryszko received a pass on the left side of the Erie box. A nice move to get open and he finds Alec Nagucki alone in front of the goal. Alec pounded the loose ball into the back of the net for the tying goal.
Cleveland wasn’t finished. After an Erie break that resulted in a missed shot, Cleveland kept possession and moved the ball downfield. Erie looked gassed as Mike Derezic wove around defenders and sent a ball in that Ailton Silva who, turning quickly around a defender, pushed the ball with this left foot past the diving Erie goalie into the far-right corner of the goal. Cleveland had their first lead of the game at 2-1.
The ending of the game was marred by a hard tackle by Erie that resulted in a yellow card to Dylan Sumner, the Erie midfielder. But as the ref was getting the card out, pushing, shoving, and jawing by both sides began to increase. In the process of getting all parties calmed down, Erie’s Dylan Sumner was issued his second yellow resulting in the red card that had Erie playing with ten men the final few minutes.
The next game for Cleveland is this Friday, Father’s Day weekend, at 7 pm against FC Buffalo. The game will be on the campus of Baldwin Wallace at George Finnie Stadium. Then two days later CSC heads to Pennsylvania for a Father’s Day game versus the Pittsburgh Hotspurs. No rest for the weary and hopefully no problems on Interstate 76 on Sunday. Again, if you can’t make the trip down, elevensports.com will have it live.
You can follow Cleveland SC on Twitter at @SoccerCLE and Instagram at soccercle.
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