Cougars leap into first place in GLVC over the weekend

Branden Peterson
Sports Reporter

The SIUE men's soccer team is tied for first in the Great Lakes Valley Conference after its two wins this weekend.

The first game was at the University of Indianapolis. The Cougars went up against the top offense in the conference.

Indianapolis' Danilo Moreira, who is ranked second in the conference in goals and scoring, stormed up the field in the first six minutes and scored a goal.

Eight minutes later Yuzuru Takami, assisted by defender Ryan Harken, beat the Greyhound defenders to tie the game.

The game was mostly dominated by the Cougars, but they were unable to score for the rest of the half because of the tough Greyhound defense.

"They didn't pose as many threatening opportunities on us, but they were hard to penetrate," head coach Ed Huneke said. "And the thing about soccer is that as long as you're close, you're still in the game. And they were in the game because they just wouldn't let us through."

The game stayed tied through most of the second half, although SIUE was dominating by attacking the goal continuously.

With about eight minutes left in the game, Brandon Gibbs, assisted by Chris Knopp, scored a goal to take the lead.

After Gibbs' goal, the Cougar defense led by goalie Donny Sheehan held the Greyhounds to zero goals in the second half.

The Cougars' success was due partly to the outstanding goaltending of Sheehan.

Sheehan is the fourth-ranked goalkeeper in the conference with two shutouts and a 1.13 goals against average.

The Cougars also have the third best defense in the conference.

The second game this weekend was at Northern Kentucky University in Highland Heights, Ky.

Northern Kentucky and SIUE came out swinging, both attacking the goals hard.

In the first period alone there were 17 shots total, eight from SIUE and nine from Northern Kentucky.

"We were really going at each other. It was really head to head," Huneke said.

But by the end of the first half, Northern Kentucky's Jeff Anderson gave the Norse the lead, going into the second half 1-0.

The second half had the same intensity as the first half.

The second half saw the same kind of goal attacking by both teams, with a total of 17 shots in the second half.

Midway through the second half, Kevin Corrigan, assisted by Gibbs, scored a goal to tie the game and send it into overtime.

Gibbs again came up with the huge score to win the game in overtime.

In the end, the Cougars won the game 2-1.

"It's a real confidence booster when you win on the road like that," Huneke said.

Huneke was very pleased with Gibbs' performance.

Gibbs finished the weekend with one assist and two winning goals.

"There's a lot to be said about scoring important goals, because that's what makes the difference. And that's what he did for us." Huneke said SCOREBOARD

Friday's Game

SIUE 2, Indianapolis 1

SIUE 1 1 - 2

Indianapolis 1 0 - 1

INDY-Danilo Moreira (Ralph Richards) 6:05

SIUE-Yuzuru Takami (Ryan Harken) 13:55

SIUE-Brandon Gibbs (Chris Knopp) 82:03

Saturday's Game

SIUE 2, Northern Kentucky 1 (OT)

SIUE 0 1 1 - 2

St. Joseph's 1 0 0 - 1

NKU-Jeff Anderson (Unassisted)10:54

SIUE- Kevin Corrigan (Brandon Gibbs) 68:51

SIUE-Brandon Gibbs (Unassisted) 103:05......