Hey there Bulldog men's soccer fans,
We've had three games since the last time we updated so I
will let you know how they went.
In Chicago we played a tough Northwestern team and came out
with a 2-2 tie. We started the
game off very well, playing good free flowing soccer. Matt Kuhn opened the scoring off a great ball from
GWebb (Garrett Webb). The first half score was
1-0 in favor of your Bulldogs. We started
the second half off sloppily, and they made us pay for it. The evened the score 15 seconds in to
the second half. A bit later Juju (Julien Edwards)
got sent off with a red card. They
scored shortly thereafter. We
could've easily folded, but we kept pushing and got the equalizer in the last
couple minutes off a goal from GWebb.
Luke Gorczyca had a great assist.
Overtime was relatively uneventful, although Calvin Clark had a great
chance to score. The keeper made a
fantastic diving save to keep the tie.
All in all we were happy with getting a point. It would have been nice to get a win against a top 25 team,
but getting a result with 10 men was good.
Our next game was a week later against Bradley in Peoria,
IL. We had not beat them at their
place in a long time. I know that
the seniors had never beaten them there, so we had a lot of motivation going in
to the game. We started the game
off firing on all cylinders. Luke
Gorczyca got the first goal of the match on a header. Then, a couple minutes later Mike Noonan took a pass from
GWebb and buried a shot in the corner.
It was a fantastic goal.
World class even. Hunter
Kennedy finished off the scoring with our third goal in 12 minutes off a pass
from Calvin Clark and Thomas Ostrander.
It was nice to see Hunter get a goal. I'm sure there will be much more to come from him. Then finished the second half with a
penalty kick to bring the score to 3-1.
The second half was relatively uneventful as we would win 3-1. It was a good way to start off the
conference.
Today we played Western Illinois in Macomb, IL. It's a tough place to play, and playing
at three in the afternoon doesn't make it any easier. Our first half was pretty dreadful, but we came out
unscathed as the score remained 0-0.
The second half was a little better, but still not great. Matt Kuhn got dragged down in the box
for a penalty in which we converted to take a 1-0 lead. We held on to win the game. It was a good win considering we didn't
play all that well.
This last week we got ranked 1st in our region
and 22nd in the nation.
It is very nice to get recognized for our good play so far this
season. We know we've let a few
slip away, but we're ready to keep winning and keep moving up. We're not satisfied with where we're at
and we know there is still a lot of work to be done. If we stay humble and keep working hard we will be
fine. We have big hopes this year,
and we know if we continue to make progress then we'll be fine.
This week I'm going to interview GWebb #14…
What did you think of
our performance today and the 1-0 win?
Today we showed a lot of character, we were able to pull out a tough win in
an unreceptive environment. In the first half we came out flat. We needed a spark and we had to wait
until the second half for it. It was back and forth game until we were able to
score. After that, we knew it would take guts and hard work to keep a goal
advantage and we did just that.
How does it feel being
named to the Hermann Trophy watch list?
It goes without saying that it's a big honor to be mentioned with the
Hermann award, but it's a better feeling knowing how I got here and the people
that have helped me along the way.
It's an attribute to them. It's a bigger honor to have a achieved this
with this team and the group of seniors I've done it with along with fellow
Hermann Trophy candidate Kevin Shrout makes for competitive/fun practices.
What are your goals
for this team for the 2nd half of the season?
Recently this week we were voted back in to the top 25. The last two
seasons, each time we have achieved this, we lose a close game and find
ourselves clawing back in. For the second half of the season we want to stay
consistent and find our way climbing up the ranking and reach the NCAA
tournament for the second straight year.
We have another big conference game coming up this Saturday,
October 10th. We play
Evansville at Cownie. It will be
nice to finally be home again after our long road trip. We look forward to seeing all of you
out there cheering us on. It's
always so nice to play in front of a big crowd. We appreciate all the support we've gotten so far this year
and we hope that we continue to make you proud to be a fan of the Drake
Bulldogs. Thanks again!
-Kevin Shrout #6
