The Bulldogs have started to hit their stride over the past 10 days, with a monumental win over a tough conference foe Creighton and a solid 3-0 shellacking of Eastern Illinois in the rain. Saturday, with the cameras of national television on them, the Bulldogs came up just short against a sound Evansville squad.
The Bulldogs strolled into Omaha on Oct. 14 to take on the Creighton Bluejays – a perennial favorite to take home the Missouri Valley Conference title. In the past 27 meetings between the two teams, the Bulldogs only earned a victory once, and that game was in Des Moines. On this night, Drake came in and tallied its second win ever against the Bluejays.
“It was thrilling to go to a national powerhouse like Creighton and get a shutout win and remain undefeated in our conference season,” Head Coach Sean Holmes said. “The game came in waves as we played well and then they played well, but we were able to finish a good chance in the second half and that unsettled them.”
With a steady rain throughout the match, the Bulldogs had to adapt to the quick movement of the ball on the slick pitch.
While the game was a closely fought battle, Thomas Ostrander (B2) provided all the offense that Drake needed to put the match away. Ostrander, the MVC offensive player of the week, took a crossing pass that deflected off a Creighton defender and put it into the back of the net with a header.
The single goal proved to be the game winner as the Bulldogs rode the momentum to victory.
“It’s a huge win for our program and it felt good to beat Creighton in Omaha,” Kevin Shrout (B4) said. “We had the entire team travel with us which gave us some extra excitement.”
Victory over the Bluejays was just the first step for the Bulldogs over the past three games. Drake then hosted Eastern Illinois at Cownie Soccer Complex Oct. 21.
Pouring rain and a wet field made for some difficult battles with the elements, but the Bulldogs persevered through the weather and handled the Panthers of Eastern Illinois with a 3-0 victory.
“Playing is obviously more difficult in the pouring rain,” Shrout said. “Fortunately, it doesn’t affect our team’s play style a lot since we like to keep the ball on the ground. We usually try to adapt at the very beginning of the game and go from there.”
An early two goals in the first half made things easy for the Bulldogs, with Julien Edwards (B4) starting the scoring account just six minutes in after he took a corner from Matt Kuhn (B3) and headed it into the goal. Hunter Kennedy (AS2) added to the lead in the 35th minute as a deflection off a shot by Evan Harrison (B3) found Kennedy, who then put it past the keeper.
“Tonight was very rewarding because we were able to beat a good opponent while resting key players,” Holmes said. “We’ve been striving all year to show that we have depth to our team and today was concrete evidence to that.”
With the victory, the Bulldogs improved to 9-4-1 overall and 4-1 in MVC play.
The Bulldogs were under the spotlight for their match against the Evansville Purple Aces, as the game was aired nationally on Fox Soccer Channel.
Unfortunately, the Bulldogs fell short in an even game that saw just one goal scored. The Purple Aces outshot the Bulldogs 17-13 as 1,758 fans cheered on at McCutchan Stadium in Evansville, Ill.
In the 52nd minute, the only goal found the net as Tom Irvin’s header from the six-yard box proved to be the difference between the teams.
“We weren’t really thinking about the game being aired on TV,” Shrout said. “But I know some guys were nervous since a lot of them have never been on TV at all. But the game was good experience against a good side that had a good crowd behind them.”
The Bulldogs will be back in action on Oct. 28 facing off against the Bradley Braves as the final four games of MVC play for Drake come to a close.
