In the final twenty minutes of last night's 1-0 loss against Cleveland State, the soccer team's top three scorers sat on the bench with injuries. With the scoring punch out of the Lions' attack, it was up to the defense to keep the score close, and they did.

Led by co-captain Ted Gillen and defender Peter Daigle, the defense kept the Vikings away from the Lions' net for most of the game, and kept Penn State in control of the ball. The Lions allowed Cleveland to take only five shots on goal, while taking 13 of their own.

"(The defense is) doing pretty well," Daigle said. "We kept it in our hands most of the time. We had one mental lapse and they capitalized on it. It's the same old story."

With the offense stalled this season, being shut out a record eight times, there has been extra pressure on the defense. So far they have been able to keep the games close, losing by only a goal in seven of their nine losses. No team has scored more than two goals on the Lions this season.

In the goal last night for Penn State was freshman Mike Imm, making his fourth start of the season, replacing sophomore Kurt Merrill. Imm allowed the game's only goal with 2:29 gone in the first half. Cleveland's Mick Ruggiero's pass took an odd bounce which set up midfielder Nick Stavrou to put the ball away. It was Stavrou's 12th goal on the season.

"Initially I felt bad (about the goal)," Imm said. "But we talked before that we can't get down. We have to stick together. After that we tried to get our attack up."

After the lapse, Imm tightened up for the next 87 minutes, making three saves. Imm kept the game close by warding off a breakaway at 14:14 in the second half. Cleveland's Will Restorick was charging the net with no defenders in front of him when Imm came up and broke it up, diving at his legs. Three minutes later Imm stopped another scoring opportunity with another save.

"I thought Mike had a decent game," Coach Barry Gorman said. "He did well enough for what he had to do. He pulled off one great stop on a breakaway. That has to do his confidence a world of good."

The Lions' offense was without leading scorer Jan Skorpen for about half the game. Skorpen is recovering from a thigh injury suffered in the game against Connecticut on Friday. With 20 minutes left in the game, the Lions' second leading scorer, Danny Kelly, was also sidelined after receiving an injury. Forward Steve Frantz remained out of action with an ankle injury.

Unfortunately for the Lions, even though they were playing good defense, the Vikings' defense, led by goalkeeper Blake New was also playing near flawless defense.

"Their defense was 11 blurs," Gorman said. "They pulled 11 people back. It's hard to score against a packed defense. They can't match up with us individually. Their team speed isn't nowhere near as fast as ours so they pack it in."

New, a two-time Mideastern all-conference selection, recorded the Lions as his eighth shutout this season. He holds Cleveland's school record with 29 career shutouts and has a .98 goals against average this season.

Last year Penn State scored four goals on New in a 4-1 win, a fact that New said gave him an extra incentive for this year's game.

New broke apart the Lions' best scoring drive with 20:30 left in the game. Midfielder Nigel Sparks worked the ball deep into Vikings' territory, then pass it to Tom Agesen, who had an open shot on goal. Agesen's shot bounced off New to midfielder Danny Gil. Gil fired it right back towards the net, only to have New bounce it over the net.

New had eight saves on the night, with many of them coming in the final twenty minutes of the game.