CANONSBURG, Pa. - The Robert Morris University men's soccer team dropped a 2-0 decision to Cleveland State Wednesday afternoon by a final score of 2-0.
The loss moves RMU to 0-2 on the season, including an 0-2 mark in Horizon League play.
"After 5-0 last week to only 2-0 this week, obviously we want to take some improvements out of that," head coach Jason O'Keefe said. "I thought we were a little more organized today, more guys were on the same page and playing for each other, but Cleveland State did a good job, they were on the ball a lot."
Cleveland State tested the Colonials back line early on, forcing keeper Grant Glorioso into a pair of saves on efforts from Pablo Kawecki and Andrew Nicholas.
After managing just one shot on target last week against Oakland, the Colonials managed to fire several more at the CSU keeper Wednesday. Preston Rushmore's effort from the top off the box was swallowed up by Naeemy Omeed for their first decent scoring chance of the game.
Another volley from Gustaf Moberg late in the first tested Omeed again, but the shot was saved again shortly before the whistle blew on the opening half with things even at 0-0.
CSU went up 1-nil in the 64' after Bojan Kolevski's strike from outside the box beat a diving Glorioso into the up lefthand corner to break the stalemate.
They would make it 2-0 just over five minutes later after Janis Schmidt was awarded a penalty kick after a collision in the box. Though Glorioso made the initial save, Schmidt was well-positioned to bang home the follow-up effort on the rebound.
RMU continued to press, hunting a goal with a late counter, however they could not crack Omeed and the CSU backline, who made several nice clears on volleys into the box.
Tom Akinola's turning effort in the box was blocked before a nice clear on Bryan Akongo's follow up was swept away to end the counter for RMU.
"There were just certain moments where we sort of fell off our gameplan and just didn't do the job we were doing for long periods, and then they punish you," O'Keefe said. "Good teams are going to punish you if you make repeated mistakes."
