Oakland Men's Soccer Dominates Spartans for First Win of the Season

September 09

Jordan Nelson

ROCHESTER, Mich. - The Golden Grizzlies put on their most dominant performance of the season against maybe their biggest foe as they earned win number one of the season against Michigan State.

The match started out in favor of the Spartans, with MSU controlling possession in the Golden Grizzly half of the field quite often. The first chance of the game came from The Spartans' Levin Gerhardt in just the third minute as he struck a ball low towards the goal where Oakland's Alex Flowers laid in wait for the save.

As the half progressed, so did the Golden Grizzly offense with opportunities to score. In the 24th minute Jack Klumparens finally broke through on a scoring chance, receiving a wide pass from Jace Foster to strike a one-timing left foot shot past MSU's Zac Kelly to score his team-leading second goal of the season and to give Oakland an early 1-0 lead.

Less than 10 minutes later the Golden Grizzlies struck again, this time from a relatively new source as senior Lejs Plicanic introduced himself to the Oakland soccer world with his first goal of the season in just his second game as a Golden Grizzly. Plicanic was on the back end of a pair of great passes from Foster once again and Andrew Darakdjian as they set up the senior from Croatia for a stunning score to take a 2-0 lead in the 33rd minute.

With the Spartan defense reeling, the Darakdjian and Plicanic duo struck again, this time in the 40th minute as Darakdjian slipped the ball into the box where Plicanic handled the rest, faking out Kelly once again for an easy score as Oakland continued to run away with the match, holding a 3-0 lead at halftime.

Oakland went into halftime with a lead, but trailed in the shots column as MSU had 11 shots to their seven, but unlike their previous games, Oakland was able to put a ton of shots on goal with four.

The Oakland defense also stood tall, anchored by goalkeeper Alex Flowers who had a sensational game, tallying four saves in the opening 45 minutes.

With a huge lead in the second half, the Oakland defense rose to another level in the final frame. The Spartans sent 10 shots at Flowers in the second half alone, but the fifth year senior captain was in true form in goal, leaping and diving all over the box to keep MSU at bay as he earned a season-high nine saves, three short of his career high.

The game became increasingly physical, with a total of 17 fouls being handed out along with eight yellow cards, but Oakland rose to the occasion and held steady to secure not only their first win of the season, but career win number one for Head Coach Paul Doroh as the lead man of the program.

"It feels amazing to get that first win. I've been telling our players all season long that we are playing well, we're going to get the results we want, but we have to stay the course and trust the process," said Doroh after the win. "They've all bought in, we worked on some things in training this week and they showed themselves on the field and we got the result. I'm really proud of them."

Good things came in pairs for Oakland in the 3-0 win as Plicanic scored his two goals to tie Klumparens for the team lead, while both Foster and Darakdjian earned two assists each. Darakdjian also took a team-high three shots with two on goal.

The Spartans were aggressive, accumulating 21 shots on the night, with nine on goal, but just couldn't sneak one past Flowers as he earned his first shutout of the season.

The Golden Grizzlies have looked to return to the elite, league-championship level that they were at last season, and may even look better with weapons in every aspect of the game.

They stride to start a winning streak as they play game number three of a four-game home stand against their first Horizon League opponent on Saturday against Cleveland State.