Creighton, Providence Advance In NCAA Men’s Soccer Tournament
NEW YORK – The BIG EAST went 2-1 on opening day of the 2016 NCAA Men’s Soccer Championship as Creighton and Providence advanced to the second round with two shutout victories. Both the Bluejays and Friars were host sites in the first round. Villanova, who received its first NCAA tournament berth, was defeated by Akron, 2-0 on the road.
Creighton and Providence advance to play two of the seeded teams in the tournament. Creighton will travel to No. 16 seed Kentucky, while Providence will visit College Park, Md., to face the tournament’s top seed, Maryland. The Terps (18-0-2) are unbeaten during the regular season and the Big Ten tournament.
Butler, the No. 15 seed in the NCAA field, had its opponent revealed as Southern Illinois University Edwardsville advanced to the second round over Michigan State on penalty kicks (9-8). SIUE and Michigan State tied at 1-1 through 110 minutes. Butler (13-5-1) defeated SIUE at the Butler Bowl on Sept. 3, 2-0. Sunday will be Butler’s first match since winning the BIG EAST Championship presented by Jeep the Sunday before. The Bulldogs are 9-1-0 at home this season.
Upcoming BIG EAST Men’s Soccer Schedule
NCAA Tournament Second Round
Sunday, Nov. 20
SIUE at No. 15 seed [11] Butler at 2 p.m.
[23] Creighton at No. 16 seed [18] Kentucky at 4:30 p.m.
Providence at No. 1 seed [1] Maryland at 5 p.m.
Last Night in BEfútbol – 11.18
[23] Creighton 3, Tulsa 0
No. 24 Creighton (12-6-3) used a pair of early goals to defeat Tulsa 3-0 in the first round the NCAA Tournament at Morrison Stadium on Thursday. Mitch LaGro opened the scoring on Creighton's first shot of the match during the third minute. Myles Englis added to the Bluejays' early lead with a goal during the sixth minute. Ricky Lopez-Espin fed Luke Haakenson down the right side of the box before Haakenson sent the ball towards the far post where Englis knocked the ball past Tulsa's goalkeeper. The goal was Englis' fifth of the postseason during four matches. Lopez-Espin added a goal during the 68th minute to give Creighton a 3-0 advantage. The Bluejays ended the match with a 14-8 advantage in shots, while Tulsa had a 5-4 edge in corner after taking all five during the closing moments of Thursday's contest. Jake McGuire made three saves for the Golden Hurricane. Alex Kapp needed to make two saves and Michael Kluver made one as the Bluejays recorded their eighth shutout of the season.
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Providence 2, Delaware 0
Providence improves to 13-6 overall with a 2-0 win over Delaware Thursday night at Chapey Field to advance to the Second Round of the NCAA Tournament. Blue Hens goalkeeper Todd Morton made five saves, while Friar keeper Colin Miller improved to 12-1 for the Friars in making four saves.The Friars struck first in the eighth minute of play on a seemingly innocent play. Senior Julian Gressel sent a pass too far ahead into the box that goalkeeper Morton tried to clear. A miscommunication between Morton and defender John Schroeder led to Morton's clear deflecting back towards his own net and redshirt junior Brendan Reardon finished off for his first goal as a Friar to put Providence up 1-0. Providence grabbed an insurance marker in the 71st minute as Alex DaCosta sent in Gressel alone on Morton and the senior made no mistake in depositing his 12th goal of the season into the back of the net to make it a 2-0 Friars lead.
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[24] Akron 2, Villanova 0
A successful season that will long be remembered for its breakthrough milestones came to an end on Thursday night as Villanova (10-8-3) fell by a 2-0 score to nationally ranked No. 24 Akron (13-5-3) at FirstEnergy Field in an NCAA Championship first round match. The host Zips controlled possession effectively for much of the evening and scored a goal in each half to eliminate the Wildcats from advancing to a second round contest against #7 national seed Indiana on Sunday afternoon. Despite six saves by keeper Will Steiner, Akron scored in the 38th and 73rd minutes to advance. Steiner had five of his stops in the second half, including several on hard shots from close range which prevented the Zips from adding any more to their lead. Akron finished the night with 20 shots, including nine shots on goal.
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