FT. LAUDERDALE, Fla. (Aug. 27, 2009) - The Nova Southeastern University men's soccer team dropped its season-opener Thursday night to Clayton State, 1-0 at the NSU Soccer Complex. The loss puts the Sharks at 0-1-0 on the season. The Lakers improve to a 1-0-0 overall record.

"It's always disappointing when you lose," said head coach Giuseppe DePalo. "I wasn't happy with the first 20 minutes, but I thought we played well in the second half of the first period. We played fantastic in the second half, we just couldn't gain the numerical advantage."

The only goal of the game came in the 19th minute as Senior Brian Endres scored off a feed from Senior Liam Brown. However, the Sharks' defense clamped down after the goal as the Lakers could not get off a shot on goal for the next 60 minutes.

NSU had several opportunities to tie the game, especially after Clayton State's Leighton Fredericks received a red card in the 62nd minute. With a one man advantage, NSU would take 6 shots and two shots on goal in the final 28 minutes. The Sharks' best chance to even up the game came in the 68th minute when David Wahlberg (Sr., Skanor, Sweden) hit a shot that ricocheted off the crossbar. Wahlberg would record his team's final shot on goal within the final 10 seconds, but could not capitalize.

"All credit to Clayton State, they'll definitely be an NCAA Tournament team," stated DePalo. "I think we proved that we could hang with that caliber of a team, we'll hopefully see them again."

NSU would end the game with more shots than the opposition, as the Sharks' attempted 17 to the Lakers' 12. The game was very physical with the referees giving out a total of nine cards. NSU was issued four yellow cards and CSU was issued four along with their red card.

Nova Southeastern will now get ready to face off against Georgia Southwestern at home this Saturday, Aug. 29 at 7 pm.