PEORIA, ILL. - In search of its first-ever State Farm Missouri Valley
Conference Championship victory over Bradley, Drake surrendered a first-half
goal that proved to be the game-winning tally lifting the Braves to a 1-0
victory in quarterfinal play on Wednesday (Nov. 10).
The loss concluded the Bulldogs' campaign at 8-8-2, while
Bradley advanced to a semifinal date with Creighton on Friday (Nov. 12) with a
10-8-2 ledger.
".500 is perhaps a fitting end to our season as we knew that
going on the road to Bradley and playing a formidable opponent on its home
field was going to be difficult," Drake head coach Sean Holmes commented. "That being said, I don't think we
played the best we can, but we created a lot of chances at the end and really
throughout second half and to give up a silly goal like we did early in the
first half is difficult. This is
how big games are won and lost, not so much on moments of brilliance, but
people capitalizing on errors."
The Bulldogs' offense got off to a slow start in the affair
as the Braves registered the first three shots before junior Michael Thaden (West Des Moines, Iowa/Valley)
posted Drake's initial shot at the 10:14 mark.
Bradley struck first in the game when Christian Meza beat
redshirt junior goalkeeper Jordan Kadlec (Hiawatha, Iowa/Cedar Rapids Kennedy) inside left
post for what proved to be the game's only tally at the 27:22 mark off an
assist from Aodhan Quinn for a 1-0 advantage.
The Braves outshot the Bulldogs in the initial stanza, 9-4,
with junior Hunter Kennedy (Cedar Rapids, Iowa/Cedar Rapids Washington) pacing Drake
with two shots.
The Bulldogs got off a strong scoring chance to begin the
second half as senior Nick Foster (West Des Moines, Iowa/Valley) fired a ball into the box
from 30 yards out which hit the diving foot of redshirt junior Charles Schwartz
(Bettendorf, Iowa/Bettendorf) and went wide at 45:52.
Bryan Gaul registered a strong shot of his own in the box
for Bradley to the left of the goal in 52nd minute (51:18), but Kadlec made a
diving save to thwart the effort.
Thaden created another scoring opportunity in the attack
with a laser that ricocheted off Bradley goalkeeper Brian Billings before being
kicked out by the Braves' defender at the 56:17 mark.
Tony Ramadani got behind the Drake defense at the 76:59 mark
getting off a shot which just missed finding the lower left corner of the net.
Freshman Brian Grand (North Branch, Minn./North Branch) narrowly missed netting the equalizer to the
lower right in the game's waning minutes.
The Bulldogs outshot the Braves in the final 45 minutes,
9-6, but were bested in the match, 15-13.
Junior Thomas Ostrander (Fort Dodge, Iowa/St. Edmond Catholic) directed
Drake with a three-shot performance, while Quinn recorded a game-high five
shots for Bradley.
Kadlec was strong in net pulling in four saves to two by
Billings.
"Considering the state of having to reconstruct our program
after last year's great season with so many guys lost to graduation and injury,
I'm pretty pleased in general and consider it a successful season," said
Holmes.
