BOWLING GREEN, Ohio - The Cleveland State men's soccer used a total team effort to pick up its first win of the 2011 season, topping Bowling Green 2-1.

Not only were the two teams battling each other, but also the heat. The pre-game temperature at Bowling Green's Cochrane Soccer Stadium was 96 degrees. That meant conditioning and depth played more of a factor than usual, and that helped the Vikings.

"We had an injury that changed our lineup, so we had to shuffle people around," said head coach Ali Kazemaini. "Brian Donnelly, Cam Eisses and Justin Mancine were three guys we had to move around and I was proud of how the team came together because it was a real team victory."

It was a team victory, and perhaps not the prettiest as neither team managed to score in the first hour of play.

After 64 minutes of scoreless action, the Vikings got on the scoreboard first when Cazz Warren, a transfer from Adrian College, received a pass from senior Chris Koy and beat Bowling Green's Michael Wiest to give the Vikings a 1-0 lead.

Just two minutes after that, Admir Suljevic beat Wiest off a pass from Aaron Adkins. It was the first goal since Oct. 24, 2009 for Suljevic, who was forced to sit out all of last season with an injury. 

Cleveland State had little time to feel comfortable with their two goal lead. Just 90 seconds after Suljevic made it a 2-0 game, Bowling Green's Brandon Silva cut the deficit in half.

Three goals in a less than four minutes, and that was all the scoring as the Vikings held on over the last 30 minutes to claim their first victory of the 2011 campaign.

CSU junior goalkeeper Brad Stuver made two saves to earn the victory.

"I thought out defense did a good job," Kazemaini said. "We had a little letdown after we took the 2-0 lead, but overall they did well."

The Vikings will return to action Friday (Sept. 9) night in game one of their west coast trip, taking on San Jose State at 10 p.m. EST before taking on Santa Clara on Sunday (Sept. 11) at 5:00 p.m. EST.

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