Oct. 28, 2006
Box Score
CHICAGO - Junior forward Keum Sung Kim recorded two assists and the fourth-seeded Loyola University Chicago men's soccer team earned its first Horizon League Championship victory since 2000 with a 3-2 quarterfinal victory against fifth-seeded Cleveland State on Saturday at Loyola Soccer Park. Loyola is now 10-7-1 overall while Cleveland State ends its season at 6-10-2.
The Ramblers put pressure on the Vikings' defense early in the match, with most of the play occurring near the Cleveland State box. LU was awarded a pair of corner kicks in the CSU end and took advantage. LU struck early in the match when Steven Graner jumped up to head a corner from Kim in the 22nd minute. Graner's second-career goal was his first of the season and gave Loyola a 1-0 advantage.
Cleveland State got some momentum on offense about two minutes later when a shot by George Kephart hit the post but fortunately ricocheted out of bounds. Starting goalkeeper Sean Bond and the Rambler defense held strong and kept the Viking offense off the board. The Dallas, Texas native saved two shots on the afternoon and ended the first half with a full-extension dive for a save which helped preserve Loyola's lead and helped him improve to 10-5-1 in net this season.
The Ramblers added two more goals early in the second half to extend their lead to 3-0 with less than 25 minutes to go. Eric Gehrig gained possession and spun to make a spinning service into the box where Javier Lopez headed the ball to deflect it through the Viking defense for Loyola's second score of the game at 55:30. Lopez now has two goals this season and eight in his career.
A few moments later, Kim was awarded a free kick just outside the box, Matt Marek wedged in for position in traffic to head in his team-high tying sixth goal of the season just 7:30 later. Kim was awarded his eight assist of the season on Marek's 10th goal of his career.
CSU came up with two goals late goals by Josh Williams from Nenad Stojkovic at 68:56. Stojokovic earned two more points by adding a goal at 82:06, which was assisted by Josh Williams.
Loyola advances to the semifinals to play the winner of the Wright State versus Illinois Chicago match. The highest remaining seed will host the semifinals and championship matches on Friday and Sunday.
