Drake Men's Soccer Closes Season With Win, Prepares for MVC Tournament

EVANSVILLE, IND. ? Junior forward Garrett Webb (Prairie Village, Kan./Shawnee Mission East) scored three goals and sophomore forward Kenan Malicevic (Cedar Rapids, Iowa/Cedar Valley) had one goal and two assists to lead the No. 25 ranked Drake men's soccer team to a 4-1 Missouri Valley Conference victory at Evansville Saturday night.

The victory allowed Drake to secure the second seed in the upcoming state farm MVC tournament. The Bulldogs received a first-round bye and will face the winner of No. 3 seeded Missouri State and No. 6 seeded Eastern Illinois Friday (Nov. 14) at a time to be determined. The tournament will be held in Evansville, Ind.

“The test of a good team is to go on the road, not play as well as you would like, but still come out with an impressive victory,” said Drake Head Coach Sean Holmes.

“We never completely found our rhythm tonight, but we were able to fight through it.”

Webb scored the game's first goal at 35:06 off a cross from the top of the box from sophomore midfielder Matt Kuhn (Raytown, Mo./Raytown South).

Evansville knotted the score at one apiece in the 58th minute on a goal by Robby Lynch off a pass from Tad Kreamalmeyer.

Off a cross in the middle of the box on a breakaway from Malicevic, Webb scored his second goal, the game-winner, at 75:48 mark.

Five minutes, twenty-six second later the duo of Malicevic and Webb took advantage of a Evansville turnover, connecting on a cross into the right side of the box to record the Bulldogs (and Webb's) third goal of the game.

“Garrett Webb and Kenan Malicevic have become a potent combination for our offense,” added Holmes.

Wanting to get in on the scoring, not just assisting, Malicevic found the net at the 85:18 mark off a cross into the left side of the box from freshman forward Thomas Ostrander (Fort Dodge, Iowa/St. Edmond).

Drake, which improved to a school-record 13-4 on the season, outshot Evansville, 15-13, led by Webb with five shots and senior Ryan Moylan (Wauwatosa, Wis./East) with three.

Sophomore goalkeeper Michael Drozd (Hartwood Heights, Ill./Loyola Academy) collected six saves for the Bulldogs, record his school-record 12th win of the season.

“Heading into the tournament we are finishing better, scoring more goals, than we had in the first half of the season,” state Holmes.

“In four of our conference games this season we have scored 14 goals and in our last game before Evansville we scored three goals against Wisconsin.”

For more tournament information please visit www.mvc.org or www.godrakebulldogs.com.

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