NIAGARA UNIVERSITY, N.Y. – The Niagara men’s soccer team dropped its season opener, 2-0, to Cleveland State on Sunday afternoon at Niagara Field. Under sunny skies and with a crowd of 263 cheering them on, the Purple Eagles were unable to find their scoring touch, falling to a scrappy Vikings squad.

"I was not pleased with our performance today," NU head coach Dermot McGrane said. "Mental mistakes cost us a couple of goals early on and we struggled to get back into the game."

Cleveland State got on the scoreboard early when an errant Niagara clearance beat Purple Eagle goalkeeper John Fiutowski (Ottawa, Ont.) to put the Vikings up 1-0 less than 10 minutes into the match. CSU made it 2-0 at the 17:17 mark when sophomore Mitch Boyer played a free kick to the feet of freshman Marco DiFranco who slotted the ball into the lower left corner of the net.

Fiutowski, who was named to the 2006 MAAC All-Rookie team, made several stellar saves to keep Niagara in the match, including snuffing a pair of 1-on-1 opportunities by the Viking forwards. Fiutowski finished with a career-high 10 saves.

Niagara, which was outshot 10-7 in the first half, picked up the offensive intensity late in the game. Despite holding a 10-5 shooting advantage in the second half, NU could not put the ball in the back of the net. The Purple Eagles earned four corner kicks in the final 10 minutes, but were unable to capitalize on their opportunities. The trio of freshman Levi Tesch (Wolcott, N.Y.) and juniors Eric Brodfuehrer (Tonawanda, N.Y./Kenmore East) and Matthew Durand (Melbourne, Australia) recorded three shots apiece. In all, Niagara had nine players attempt shots, but only managed to get six of the 17 shots on net.

"It’s early in the season," McGrane said. "We’ve got a lot of games and a lot of work ahead of us."

Niagara returns to action Wednesday when it travels to Buffalo for a 7 p.m. game with the Bulls.