DES MOINES, IOWA - Senior
Garrett Webb (Prairie Village,
Kan./Shawnee Mission East) scored a pair of goals to lift the Drake men's
soccer team to the State Farm Missouri Valley Conference
Championship title match with a 3-1 victory over league nemesis Creighton on
Friday evening (Nov. 13) at the Cownie Soccer Complex.
The win was the first in six tournament encounters with the Bluejays and
propelled the Bulldogs to 12-6-2 overall, while Creighton saw its record fall
to 7-4-5.
Drake will next meet Evansville, who registered a 2-1 overtime victory
over top-seeded Missouri State in the night's other semifinal match, in the
title tilt of the MVC Championship on Sunday (Nov. 15) at 1:06 p.m. The game will be broadcast live on Fox
Sports Midwest.
"Tonight was the culmination of four years of hard work," Bulldog head
coach Sean Holmes commented. "The
win sort of brought this senior class to maturity and secondly, to have started
when we used to play at the back of the tennis center and to progress to such
quality facility and to win against someone who we've spent almost every single
working day of my 12 years being in the shadow of, is absolutely incredible.
"I really didn't think this day might ever come and it felt really good
and now the win makes the time between now and Monday (NCAA Tournament pairings
announced) less stressful, a tournament berth is not in the bag but this
victory points us in the right direction as it gets us our 12th win and gives
us a chance to get another national television game."
After battling to a 3-3 double-overtime tie with Creighton last Saturday
(Nov. 7), Drake was able to overcome a slow start that saw the Bulldogs getting
outshot in the first half, 11-6, and 21-9 for the game.
Webb gave Drake the early 1-0 lead as his header off a play from the
corner of the box by junior Nick Foster
(West Des Moines, Iowa/Valley) resulted in his 10th tally of the year at the
39:34 mark.
The defense though failed the Bulldogs in the 45th minute (44:23) as
Drake's inability to properly clear the ball out of the box resulted Ethan
Finley's eighth goal of the season to send the contest into the intermission
tied at one.
The momentum swung back in favor of the Bulldogs at the 48:31 mark when
senior Luke Gorczyca (Overland Park,
Kan./St. Thomas Aquinas) knocked in a header off a free kick from the corner of
the box by senior Kevin Shrout
(Lee's Summit, Mo./Lee's Summit) to give Drake a 2-1 advantage. The goal was fourth of the year for
Gorczyca.
Webb then completed his third consecutive multiple-goal match with an
end-to-end sequence that resulted in his team-leading 11th tally of the
campaign in the 64th minute (63:32).
The play was set-up by a brilliant defensive play by senior Brian Wurst (Kansas City, Mo./Park Hill
South), who rejected the Creighton offensive attack deep in the Drake end and
then drove the ball up the sideline before slicing a feed into redshirt
sophomore Michael Noonan (Cedar
Rapids, Iowa/Xavier) who sent a touch pass to Webb for the goal.
"To see Garrett (Webb) be so explosive and to come into form late in the
season has been gratifying," Holmes explained.
Webb, who has scored seven of his team-leading 11 goals in the last four
contests, netted tallies on his only two shots of the night, while Noonan also
contributed a team-high two shots to the Drake cause. Seth Sinovic paced all players with five shots.
Redshirt junior Michael Drozd
(Harwood Heights, Ill./Loyola Academy) pulled in a game-high eight saves for
the Bulldogs, while his counterpart Brian Holt registered one stop.
Drake now faces a Purple Aces squad that the Bulldogs garnered a 1-0
home triumph against on Oct. 10 before falling by an identical 1-0 count on
national television at Evansville on Oct. 23.
"I don't think we were what we could be that day with the travel and having
a Wednesday night game (a 3-0 home win over Eastern Illinois on Oct. 21)," said
Holmes. "I just never felt we
played to our full potential and to get that opportunity again is great."
"I know now we can score against anyone and if we get a little tighter
at the back we can have an opportunity," Holmes explained.
